The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades have received money from Hezbollah to fund terror attacks, members of the Palestinian militant group revealed in an interview published Sunday.
In the interview, published in the U.K.’s Sunday Times, a Brigades leader in the West Bank city of Nablus, Allah Sanakra, said that while he no longer receives money from Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad continues to do so. Sankara said he believes the money comes from Iran.
The interviews appear to confirm Israel’s contention that Hezbollah is trying to sabotage the calm in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by supporting terror organizations there.
Israel has declined to release proof of these allegations.
Sanakra said members of Hezbollah had telephoned him and other militants in the West Bank from Beirut.
The other Brigades militants who were interviewed also come from the Nablus area.
Although the largest sum that had been transferred was $9,000, Hezbollah generally sent the Brigades payments of $4,000, the interviewees said.
The Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades is linked to the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah faction.
Sankara was quoted as saying Hezbollah often used Western Union’s money transfer service.
He added that he continued to receive money from Hezbollah after the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stopped sending money to Fatah activists, but said the cash flow came to a halt when Hezbollah objected to using the money to pay families of suicide bombers.
Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has said in the past that his organization has ties to Palestinian militants.
But recently, following international pressure on Nasrallah and on Lebanon, he has said he has no intention of foiling the PA’s efforts to bring about calm.