GAZA CITY (CNN) -- European monitors at a crossing between Gaza and Egypt caught a Hamas official Friday carrying about 900,000 euros, Palestinian officials said.
That amount is worth more than a million dollars.
The Associated Press identified the official as Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
This is the same guy who swears up and down that Hamas is nothing like Al Qaeda, no-sir-ee-bob.
Commenting on bin Laden's message shortly afterwards, Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, said the group's ideology was "totally different" from that of bin Laden and al-Qaeda.Hamas is very keen to have good relationships with people who give it money for free, with no preconditions, and who look the other way when they smuggle some in themselves.
"What Osama bin Laden said is his opinion, but Hamas has its own positions which are different to the ones expressed by bin Laden," he said.
However, he said that what he called the "international siege on the Palestinian people" would inevitably lead to tensions in the Arab and Islamic world.
"It's natural that this tension is going to create an impression that there is a Western-Israeli alliance working against the Palestinians," Abu Zuhri said.
He added that Hamas was "very keen to have good relations with the West" but said that Western policies were inflaming tensions.