Where is humanitarian aid for the Palestinians going?

There's a report in Yediot Aharanot this week about how humanitarian aid to the Palestinians is being diverted....

The [Israeli] Government Coordinator of Activities in the Palestinian Territories and intelligence services are conducting a joint investigation, following suspicions that Palestinians have forged documents in order to transfer humanitarian donations into the Palestinian territories, and from there they ended up in the hands of the Hamas government.

Additional parties, both in Israel and overseas, are involved in the highly secret investigation. The main suspicion is that standing behind the "donated" forgeries are Islamists, looking for a way around the Israeli embargo on the transfer of aid to Hamas. Those elements successfully forged permits from governments and overseas humanitarian agencies. Included are genuine donations intended for hospitals and humanitarian agencies in the Palestinian Authority. The "permits" were attached to containers of food, medicines, clothing, etc. and transported through to Palestinian Authority controlled territories, after receiving Israeli government approval.

The suspicions are that the real destinations of the "donations" were for the private use of the forgers, or for sale with the proceeds being transferred to Hamas. Some of the cases are personal corruption, although some give rise to suspicions of fraud involving the Hamas government.

The use of fictional donors has been revealed, with telephone numbers on the "permits" being incorrect or disconnected. In one case the Government Coordinator of Activities in the Palestinian Territories contacted the donor, in order to confirm that he in fact transferred the donation to the Palestinians. The donor denied ever having made any such donation. The donations with forged permits came are suspected to have come from several different countries, including the UK, Germany, Austria, Jordan, Spain, Canada and South Korea.

Last night, Security Service sources confirmed the investigation and said that the it was multi-faceted. Shlomo Dror, spokesperson for the Coordinator of Activities in the Palestinian Territories, responded to the report yesterday evening: "Suspicions were aroused regarding the bona-fides of certain donations, concerning the way they were transferred and the organizations that stand behind them, and the matter is under investigation on our behalf."