Israel's security services have arrested a US doctor on suspicion of belonging to a group banned in the United States for allegedly fund-raising for the radical Islamic group Hamas, officials said today.
Riad Abed al-Karim, a 33-year-old US citizen, was arrested at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday for alleged membership of the Holy Land Foundation, which was outlawed in the United States last December, the government press office said in a statement.
The organisation, banned in Israel in 1997, was accused of raising money for the Islamic Resistance Organisation, or Hamas, which has carried out devastating suicide attacks in Israeli cities.
The release of information about the arrest was delayed by a gag order imposed by Tel Aviv district court.
AFP