British aid workers distributing medical and food supplies in the West Bank risk being arrested by Israel after it banned five British-based charities operating in Gaza for their alleged links with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group.

British citizens and Palestinian volunteers working with the proscribed charities in the West Bank could potentially be arrested by the Israelis for operating with organisations accused of being “fundraising networks” for Hamas, The Times has learnt.

The Charity Commission-registered organisations - Muslim Aid, Human Appeal International, Muslim Hands, Human Relief Foundation and Educational Aid for Palestinians - strongly rejected any links with Hamas, and some urged the Government to help to lift the ban.

This came as the Israeli Embassy in London gave warning that action would be taken against charity organisations in the Palestinian territories that were considered to be dealing with terrorism groups. The military wing of Hamas, Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, which has been responsible for numerous suicide attacks in Israel, was banned by Britain in March 2001.

An Israeli embassy spokesman said: “Israel in principle deserves the right to protect the lives of our citizens. So if we have to stop, or to act against, terrorist organisations or organisations which are somehow involved in financing, aiding terrorist activities, we have to act against them.”

Nabeel Ramadhani, the director of the Human Relief Foundation, said that his organisation helped Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan and did not have an office in the Palestinian territories. It has also been wrongly named Humanitarian Relief Foundation by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The reason behind it [the proscription] is not clear for me,” he said. “I never dealt with anyone in the Government in the Palestinian territories.”

The British charities are among 36 predominantly Muslim organisations that are allegedly part of the “Union of Good” umbrella body “composed of dozens of extremist Islamic foundations worldwide”, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

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