Israel Targets Hamas Cryptocurrency, Raids Money Transfer Agencies
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Sulaiman
- . December 28, 2023
- . Update: December 28, 2023 8:13 pm
The Israeli military seized millions of dollars from foreign exchanges and money transfer agencies, during raids, across cities in the occupied West Bank.
It said terrorist funds were found and tens of millions of shekels, safes, documents. The military confiscated recording systems and telephones. “The operation also targeted cryptographic currencies, with special cybercrimes unit taking part in the investigation.”
Hamas Has $40mn in Cryptocurrency Wallets
Israeli and US officials are aware about Hamas soliciting cryptocurrency donations, but the scale is unknown. Hamas has been using cryptocurrency. According to a report by Congressional Research Service, cryptocurrency wallets connected to Hamas received about $41 million between 2020 and 2023. The crypto wallets connected to the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) received as much as $93 million over the same period.
Hamas’ efforts to generate cryptocurrency donations garnered attention from prospective donors and the US government as well. Coinbase, a crypto exchange platform, identified Hamas in 2021 as one of the several terrorist groups involved in cryptocurrency fundraising. The report states that Israeli authorities seized dozens of cryptocurrency addresses linked to Hamas, PIJ, and other terrorist groups between 2021 and 2023. As such, Iran’s Qassam Brigades announced in April 2023 and cautioned donors as well that it would stop accepting Bitcoin donations.
Authorities have been on alert, since the October 7 attack, and monitoring Hamas-linked entities giving cryptocurrency donations to fund the Israel-Hamas war. This has once again brought the spotlight on cryptocurrency and how it’s being used by terror groups to fund their conflicts.
Former US federal prosecutor Ari Redbord said the US and Israeli authorities are really targeting the financing of terrorism through crypto by Hamas. He explained that cryptocurrency lives and moves on an open ledger, where every transaction is traceable and immutable. “I think that what it’s so important is just cut out any avenue of possible terror financing or ways in which Hamas can move funds.”
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Who Funds Hamas?
Robert Greenway, Heritage Director of the Center for National Defense, says Hamas is an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood among the Palestinians that live in Gaza – the Islamic Resistande Movement.
“They are a wholly owned subsidiary, a franchise of Tehran. They are almost exclusively funded, supported, trained, equipped and provided the ability to manufacture weapons themselves by Tehran, and they don’t act absent direction or control.”
However, Greenway said the US is also involved. “We have directly funded through USAID organizations and through UN aid organizations under this administration, we’ve resumed and opened up funding to Hamas and other organizations, inevitably recognizing, and internal state deliberations have demonstrated that they recognize that there’s a risk that these resources would go to be used by Hamas for terrorism.”
