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Muslim groups to step up aid to Hamas

The Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday it is launching a worldwide donation campaign for a Hamas-led Palestinian government in the face of US efforts to stop the flow of money to the hard-line group.

The pledge by the Brotherhood, which has branches and affiliated groups in 86 countries, comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice started a Middle East shuttle yesterday to caution regional powers against giving money to a Hamas-led government. The US and Europe, the world's two largest donors to the Palestinians, said they will not provide funding directly to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas heads the government.

"This is injustice and an attempt to impose a blockade on the Palestinians," said the Brotherhood's supreme leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef.

"We will appeal to each and every Muslim to help the Palestinians in the face of this unjust and fierce campaign [against Hamas]," Akef told reporters.

Another Brotherhood leader said the group will ask its supporters to donate one quarter of their income to support Hamas.

"The Muslim Brotherhood [supporters] are ready to give a quarter of their income of more to support the Palestinian cause and back Hamas," Mohammed Hilal told the Cairo-based al-Masry al-Yawm newspaper.

Arab and Islamic governments are also trying to make up any shortfall in Palestinian finances caused by a cutoff in Western aid.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member grouping of Muslim nations, plans to provide institutional and financial aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.

"We will [provide funding]. I have already spoken to some [OIC] leaders about it. We want to help, too," he told reporters.

Also yesterday, foreign ministers from several Arab countries were to meet in Algiers to examine a plan to send about US$50 million a month to the Palestinian Authority. A final decision is not expected until Arab leaders meet in a summit next month in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Meanwhile, in fresh violence yesterday, Israeli troops carried out a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus and ambushed gunmen from Islamic Jihad, killing two, including the group's West Bank commander, Palestinian sources said. Four gunmen were wounded.
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