BRUSSELS, 11 August 2004 — The European Union’s anti-fraud office said yesterday it had found no evidence that EU aid to the Palestinian Authority has been used to finance illegal activities such as terrorism.
“To date there is no evidence that funds from the non-targeted EU direct budget assistance to the Palestinian Authority have been used to finance illegal activities, including terrorism,” the European Union’s anti-fraud office OLAF said in a statement.
OLAF said this was a preliminary assessment and that its investigation into the handling of such funds was continuing. “The investigation is ongoing and therefore every interim funding may be subject to review.”
The investigation, opened on Feb. 6, 2003, concerned allegations that EU funds had been misused to finance terrorism and on alleged irregularities in the fund allocation mechanism. OLAF has collected evidence from a number of different sources, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Both the Israeli administration and Palestinian Authority have cooperated with the probe. The EU is the biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities yesterday reopened the Rafah crossing on the border between Gaza and Egypt to commercial traffic, officials on both sides of the terminal said. An Israeli military source confirmed that commercial vehicles were being allowed to cross for the first time for several weeks, although the border was reopened to civilians last Friday.
The official Egyptian news agency MENA also quoted an official at Rafah as saying that several Egyptian trucks loaded with supplies had crossed into Gaza. Israeli authorities, citing security reasons, closed the Rafah crossing on July 18, leaving thousands of Palestinians returning home for holidays stranded on the Egyptian side.
Israel reopened the border on Friday following an international outcry prompted by the dire situation of the Palestinians, hundreds of whom had camped for weeks at the border under dire conditions.
The opening was only partial, however, as it covered only travel to the territories. Palestinians could not leave the territories via Rafah and the crossing remained closed to commercial traffic.
On Monday, Israel began allowing travelers to cross into Egypt from Gaza. Israel had claimed to have intelligence that a tunnel under the crossing was packed with explosives and could be blown up at any time.
But the plight of some 3,400 stranded Palestinians sparked a raft of appeals by the Palestinian Authority, foreign governments including the United States and rights groups.
The Israeli military has waged a campaign in Rafah aimed at uncovering and destroying tunnels used by militants to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza.
