The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel has financed the creation of the Palestinian group Hamas in a bid to weaken the Palestinian Authority, Reuters reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied accusations by his opponents in Israel and some global media that his government spent years actively boosting Hamas in Gaza.

“Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah,” Borrell said in a speech in the University of Valladolid, without elaborating further on such alleged financing.