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.
