Remember that Hamas official who was caught smuggling nearly a million dollars in cash through the Egyptian border? Remember what Palestinian “president” Mahmoud Abbas said (through his spokesliar Saeb Erekat) at the time?

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the Palestinian attorney general to investigate a senior Hamas official who was caught trying to smuggle $817,000 into the Gaza Strip, a senior presidential adviser said Friday.

Sami Abu Zuhri was caught trying to smuggle the money into Gaza from Egypt earlier in the day, a possible sign of how desperate the cash-starved Hamas government is for money. He was stopped at the Palestinian-controlled Gaza-Egypt border.

“President Abbas has sent the money and the file to the attorney general,” said Abbas adviser Saeb Erekat. “It has become a legal case that requires an investigation.”

Well, hold onto your hats. This may come as a shock. I hope you’re sitting down. Because the confiscated money went to Hamas after all.

Some 640,000 Euros confiscated from a Hamas smuggler at Rafiach crossing last week have been given to the Hamas Authority. Some of it will pay for a militia manned by Izaddin Al-Kassam terrorists.

The cash, the equivalent of some $820,000, was discovered in the baggage of the Hamas spokesman as he made his way into Gaza from Egypt. European Union inspectors confiscated the money, which was over 400 times more than the amount permitted without declaration. A band of Hamas gunmen arrived on the scene demanding the return of the money, but they were soon dispersed.

PA Chairman Abu Mazen ordered the money transferred to the prosecution offices of the PA, and demanded an investigation into the Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhari, and his activities.

However, Abu Zuhari said this week that the money had in fact been officially given to the PA’s interior minister on May 22. Speaking with the official Hamas publication, Abu Zuhari promised that the donations would reach their “correct destinations.”

UPDATE at 5/27/06 7:17:05 pm:

Note what this says about the “rivalry” between Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah and the terror gang Hamas. They may have their differences on minor matters, but when it comes to killing Jews they’re totally in sync.