UN special envoyLaurie Cardoza-Moore. Photo: Facebook.

A special envoy to the United Nations (UN) wants international humanitarian organizations to cease aid transfers to Gaza, “as long as Hamas is in control.”

Recent reports have detailed how Hamas is diverting millions of dollars intended for Gaza’s civilians in order to rebuild the organization’s terrorist capabilities.

“The enemy of the people of Gaza is Hamas, not Israel. Hamas has hijacked the coastal strip and rules over its people with an iron fist,” UN Special Envoy Laurie Cardoza-Moore said last Thursday. “For decades, the leadership of Hamas has robbed its people of aid money…The time has come to halt all aid money into the Gaza Strip as long as Hamas is in control.”

Cardoza-Moore’s strong message came shortly after a Gaza-based UN employee was indicted for laundering charitable donations to improve Hamas’ naval capabilities. Earlier this month, Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service reported that Hamas funnelled tens of millions of dollars from World Vision, a US-based international charity.

The terrorist group reportedly siphoned 60 percent of the charity’s resources in Gaza to reconstruct Hamas’ tunnel network and military installations, in addition to purchasing weapons intended to kill Israelis. This translated to roughly $7.2 million each year.

The money was originally intended to help in civilian reconstruction efforts for Gaza’s population, including building greenhouses, enhancing agricultural projects, helping fishermen, and promoting mental and physical health initiatives.

Instead “these [funds] were all used as a pipeline to transfer money to Hamas,” the Shin Bet said.

Hamas terrorists also falsely listed their children as injured to collect money intended to help children in Gaza who were actually wounded.

“If the international community wants to help the impoverished people of Gaza, they must work to free them from Hamas…It is unacceptable that hundreds of millions of dollars are likely being directly transferred to the coffers of an international terrorist organization in the name of Christianity and humanity. No church or humanitarian organization should send a single cent to Gaza as long as it is run by a band of murderous terrorist bandits,” said Cardoza-Moore.

Since the end of the summer 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, several reports have emerged documenting how the terrorist group prioritizes killing Israelis over serving its population. The latest investigations uncover important details on how Hamas exploits legitimate charitable organizations globally to finance its terrorist capabilities at the expense of needy civilians and societal development.

Steven Emerson is the Executive Director the Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org) where this article first appeared.