A Turkish relief agency that has entered Gaza to aid with debris removal and humanitarian work is a proscribed terror group in Israel with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and al-Qaeda.
IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation is a Government-organized non-governmental organization or GONGO, meaning it is closely linked to the Turkish ruling party under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Videos from the organization's social media show members operating in northern Gaza to clear roads and remove fallen building material.
However, IHH has long been associated with terror groups, and has been banned in Israel since 2008 under the order of Ehud Barak.
What are the claims against IHH?
According to Israel's Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, IHH has "two hats": one hat is its work as a humanitarian organization that conducts legitimate humanitarian activity around the world; the other hat is "a radical, jihadi and pro-Hamas organization and involvement in terrorist attacks."
IHH was established in Germany in 1992 amid the war in Bosnia, with the intention of providing aid to Bosnian Muslims. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, it was from the offset a "distinctly Islamist-extremist-jihadi organization" maintaining contacts with global jihadi elements, particularly those in Bosnian and Chechen areas. It also maintained direct contact with al-Qaeda, notably through IHH's leader, Fehmi Bülent Yıldırım, who was close friends with Chechen leader Shamil Basayev. IHH reportedly helped Chechen fighters to transfer money to al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. Throughout the 1990s, IHH also helped provide logistical support to Uzbek jihad groups and Bosnian jihad fighters.
A lot of what is known about the activities of IHH in this time period is thanks to a 2006 Danish research study that determined that IHH had in the past had ties with al-Qaeda and global jihad operatives.
Interestingly, IHH was investigated by Turkish authorities in 1994 for these very ties to Islamist organizations, leading to a raid on IHH's office in Istanbul. According to the Danish study, Turkish authorities found weapons, explosives, and instructions for making IEDs. Seized documents also revealed that IHH operatives intended to join jihad groups in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.
At the turn of the century, IHH was once more put in the spotlight during the trial of Ahmed Ressam, the al-Qaeda operative behind the foiled 2000 millennium attack plots.
Ressam had planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport but was captured before he could do so. During the trial, a French investigator named Jean-Louis Bruguière testified that IHH was a cover organization for al-Qaeda, through which Al-Qaeda obtained forged documents, recruited operatives, and transferred weapons.
"They were basically helping al-Qaeda when (Osama) bin Laden started to want to target US soil," Bruguière said, adding that "IHH had a role in the organization that led to the [millennium] plot."
Then came the Mavi Maramara debacle, also known as the Gaza Freedom Flotilla incident, in 2010.
IHH organized a flotilla mission to Gaza with the stated intention of delivering humanitarian aid and breaking the Israeli maritime blockade. On 31 May 2010, Israeli forces raided the ships via speedboats and helicopters. During the raid, nine activists - eight of whom were IHH members - were killed by Israeli forces, leading to public outcry.
Of the 561 total individuals on the flotilla, 91 were IHH members. According to passenger interviews after the event, those on board intended to violently confront the IDF, and were willing to sacrifice themselves if needed. Aboard the boats, Israeli forces found hundreds of weapons, including iron bars, knives, axes, Molotov cocktails, slingshots, and gas masks. Nevertheless, condemnation of Israel's actions led the Jewish State to ease its blockade of Gaza.
IHH and Hamas
According to Meir Amit, in 2009, IHH sent a representative named Izzet Sahin to the West Bank to assist with Hamas's civilian infrastructure. Sahin was arrested and deported, and replaced by another man, Mehmet Kaya, who was active in assisting Hamas in the Gaza Strip before his arrest by Israel in 2017.
Meir Amit also alleged that IHH has provided continual financial aid to Hamas. After Operation Cast Lead (2008-9) IHH promised 50 million euros to Gaza, much of which went to families of martyrs, and into the Hamas-led education system.
IHH is also a member of the Union of Good, an umbrella organization for more than 50 Islamic organizations, which the US government defines as "an organization created by the Hamas leadership to transfer funds to terrorist organizations." The Union of Good is also banned in Israel, and the United States Treasury designated it as supporting terrorism under Executive Order 13224 in November 2008.
IHH's German branch, IHH Germany, was banned by Germany’s interior ministry in 2010 due to funnelling a believed €6.6m to Hamas.
“Under the cover of humanitarian aid, the IHH has been supporting for a long time and with considerable financial resources so-called social groups which have to be seen as connected to Hamas,” Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s interior minister, said in a statement at the time.
Ohad Merlin, a Middle East researcher in the regional program at Mind Israel, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that "this is a very worrying development that raises questions about the decision, while decision-makers, for their part, have yet to provide satisfactory answers to Israeli citizens regarding the move."
"The organization's entry to Gaza is but one example of the price that Israel is forced to pay for the strong ties between the current US administration and Erdogan and the Emir of Qatar, and it serves as proof of the dominance of Ankara and Doha in the arrangements for the day after in Gaza."
"Unfortunately, Israel finds itself accepting these dictates which are antithetical to Israeli interests, formed and concluded above its head in the best case, or with Jerusalem’s approval in the worst case," he added.
"And so, after decades in which the Muslim Brotherhood camp led by these two countries has inflicted heavy damage against Israel, Jerusalem now accepts Erdogan as center stage in Gaza."