*Blood Money: The marvelous wealth of the Hamas billionaires

While the population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip suffers from poverty, "Palestinian" leaders are amassing immense fortunes. Zahwa Arafat, daughter of the late PLO chief Yasser Arafat, is estimated to be worth $8 billion. Hamas leaders like Khaled Meshaal have five billion.

These sums do not come from economic performance, are not earned, because the economy of the West Bank and Gaza generates hardly any prosperity. Instead, billions in aid money flow from the international community and terror supporters like Qatar and Iran. The "Palestinian" elites enrich themselves through the theft of these funds, the exploitation of their own people, and the financing of terrorism.

The "Palestinian" leadership has perfected a system of enrichment based on corruption and theft. Yasser Arafat, the founder of the PLO and later president of the Palestinian Authority, controlled a financial empire whose funds largely came from international aid intended to build a "Palestinian" society. Instead, Arafat diverted billions, including through secret accounts in Switzerland and investments in companies worldwide.

An investigation by CBS News revealed in 2003 that Arafat diverted two million dollars a month from the gasoline trade, among other things, and pocketed it. The New York Times reported in 2004 that Arafat had amassed a fortune of up to five billion through corruption, including the diversion of taxes that Israel collected under the Oslo Accords. Arafat paid 100,000 a month to his wife Suha in Paris while the "Palestinians" sat on the street.

After his death, his daughter Zahwa Arafat inherited a total estimated at eight billion, which came from these diverted aid funds. Israeli sources confirm that she owns luxury properties in London and Paris, despite her status as an UNRWA registrant.

Under Arafat's aegis, international aid was systematically diverted. The Jewish Virtual Library documents how almost 40 percent of the Palestinian Authority's $800 million budget was lost to corruption.

A World Bank report from the 1990s highlighted corruption as a central problem, with funds flowing into private accounts instead of into infrastructure and economic development. Fatah leaders used their positions to steal aid shipments and distribute them to their own clientele. For example, they extorted taxes from "Palestinian" workers abroad and diverted donations from the Gulf states.

The corruption also included outright extortion: local entrepreneurs had to pay "protection money" to operate. The EU and the USA transferred billions and billions, but a large part ended up with the corrupt leadership. Nothing was invested in the development of the local economy. A study by the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center describes how PLO officials systematically engaged in bribery, extortion, and money laundering.

Hamas, the ruling terrorist organization in Gaza, has taken this model to a whole new level. Their leaders live – or rather lived – in luxury in Qatar, while they deliberately let Gaza go to ruin in order to drive their victim propaganda.

SATIRE. The sky in Gaza is black

Khaled Meshaal, former Hamas leader, has five billion US dollars, Ismail Haniyeh four billion. These fortunes come from diverted aid funds, "taxes" on aid deliveries, and the financing of terror supporters.

The IDF revealed in 2025 how Hamas systematically steals aid shipments: Over 70 percent of the funds are diverted to buy weapons or invest in luxury hotels. Hamas also levies a 20 percent "tax" on all aid shipments to Gaza, which brings in hundreds of millions annually.

The Daily Mail reports on how leaders like Meshaal finance yachts and villas while sending Gazans to "martyrdom." Hamas also resorts to extortion; entrepreneurs must pay "protection money" to survive.

The Algemeiner describes how Hamas subjugates the economy and siphons off profits. One example: Hamas steals cement for terror tunnels that was meant for housing construction and diverts UNRWA funds.

Additionally, regimes that finance terror—such as those of Qatar and Iran—send billions as "aid," which Hamas uses for personal enrichment and purchasing weapons.

The leadership of the "Palestinians," a people invented by the Muslim Brotherhood (Arafat was Egyptian), survives on support for terrorism, corruption, extortion, and theft. There is no real economy despite dozens of billions from abroad.

The money was funneled into personal enrichment and financing terrorism. In light of this, it is unlikely that the Hamas leadership will give up its power and lay down its arms. Because then the warm rain of money from Western tax dollars and Islamist oil billions would end.