Special report: Hamas-led cabinet takes office

    GAZA, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Saturday slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' call for investigation into an alleged money smuggling by Abu Zuhri into the Gaza Strip on Friday.

    In a written statement sent to reporters, Abu Zuhri has also accused Abbas' aides of "standing behind the call to investigate the issue of trying to smuggle money into the Gaza Strip."

    "Mahmoud Abbas is out of the country and I expect that some of his close assistants are standing behind the call for investigation to inflame the Palestinian street," Abu Zuhri said.

    A source in Abbas' office in the West Bank city of Ramallah said on Friday that Abbas ordered the attorney general to open an investigation and question Abu Zurhi on where this money came from.

    Abu Zuhri was caught trying to smuggle 639,000 euros (about 817,000 U.S. dollars) at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Friday.

    European Union monitors at Rafah crossing point asked Palestinian security officers to inspect Abu Zuhri, whom Palestinian sources said he was coming from Damascus, as they suspected "something strange" hidden under his cloths.

    Abu Zuhri told the Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel on Friday that the money was donated privately by individuals he met during a tour of Arab nations.

    But he did not declare the money and tried to smuggle it, said spokesman for the EU monitors supervising the Palestinian-controlled crossing.

    Travelers crossing through Rafah must declare cash over 2,000 dollars and explain its origin.

    It was unclear if the money were directed to Hamas or the cash-strapped government it leads.

    However, Abu Zuhri said Hamas would give up the money in favor of the government.

    "Since the money reached the government, I believe that it went to the right side," he said, in contradiction to what he had earlier said that the money was brought to pay salaries for Palestinian prisoners into Israeli jails.

    The Hamas-led Palestinian government has been cash-strapped since it took office in late March as the United States and the EU cut off badly needed aid to punish Hamas for its refusal to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept previous peace accords. Enditem