Israel Matzav

Gaza's gold market

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's bodyguard has been arrested by Egyptian authorities and charged with smuggling gold into the Gaza Strip.

According to Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm, the bodyguard, Muhammad Naim, was arrested in Cairo six months ago after it was proven he was the owner of an underground tunnel used to smuggle gold, currency and terror suspects into the Strip.

The report said security forces began following Naim after an Egyptian gold merchant informed authorities that he had "suspiciously" requested large amounts of gold from local traders.

Some of the gold merchants have been released over the past few weeks. Twelve remain in custody.

The Egyptian sources said the traders sold the gold to Naim despite knowing it was meant to be smuggled into Gaza.

According to them, Naim moved to Egypt to complete his political science studies. During his arrest in April, gold and large sums of money were found in his apartment.

How did the gold get out of the Gaza Strip and where did it go from there (since of course, the 'poor, starving Gazans' don't have any money to buy gold)? Hmmm.

UPDATE 9:03 PM

Welcome Jawa Report readers.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:36 PM