Israeli police detain local officials suspected of pocketing aid sent after Oct 7 attack

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities on Monday detained a group of local officials and businesspeople that investigators suspect siphoned off millions in wartime aid, announcing a fraud inquiry involving donations that poured in after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023.

Israeli police said in a statement that in the months leading up to Monday’s arrest, investigators had tracked unnamed local leaders on the suspicion that they had diverted and pocketed an equivalent of millions of dollars sent in the context of the Israel-Hamas war.

The arrests come after donations surged following the attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians and took 251 people hostage. Synagogues, corporations and Jewish organizations around the world sent aid to Israeli charities and municipalities in need.

Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry said in a March 2024 report that at least $1.4 billion had been donated by that time, as local councils worked alongside nonprofits worldwide to strengthen social services to support evacuees. The ministry report said that local authorities and associated municipal businesses “received a substantial amount” of the funds, particularly the councils near the Gaza border.

More than 120,000 Israelis were displaced from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon early in the war, according to the office of Israel's prime minister. It sent municipalities scrambling to provide services to constituents who were displaced from homes that were either destroyed in the attack or endangered by rockets that Hezbollah was launching toward Israel from Lebanon.

Corruption scandals aren't uncommon in Israel and are regularly investigated by the state comptroller, ranging from local officials and mayors to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces charges in multiple corruption cases involving allegations of bribery, fraud and breach of trust that predate and aren't connected to the Israel-Hamas war.