During a speech in Spain, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel was responsible for financing Hamas and their surge to power in Gaza.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said very plainly during a speech at the University of Valladolid in Spain that Israel financed Hamas in an effort to weaken the then-governing Palestinian Authority.

“Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah,” Borrell said without elaborating, Reuters reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously denied such allegations. He has also decried other remarks from the EU and the United Nations as sympathetic to Hamas.