Israel
International charities have been handing Hamas millions since October 7 terror attack
Financial website Bloomberg estimates the terror group gets $8-12 million a month in online donations
January 25, 2024 16:22
Financial website Bloomberg estimates the terror group gets $8-12 million a month in online donations
January 25, 2024 16:22(JNS) Hamas has been receiving $8-$12 million per month through online donations since its October 7 assault on Israel, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
The funding, mostly from organisations posing as charities to assist Gaza civilians, represents a “multi-fold increase” over what the terrorist group was getting before the massacre, officials at the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel told the news agency.
Washington is aware of the online donations and is assisting Jerusalem in halting what Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh called in a speech earlier this month “financial jihad”, a senior US official said.
Since October 7, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed four rounds of financial sanctions on Hamas.
Israel and the United States are part of a 16-member task force established since the start of the war to counter fundraising by the Gaza-based terrorist group, which includes Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
“There is no question that there is a sharp increase in legitimate and illegitimate charitable giving to Palestinians in wake of the Gaza hostilities,” Matthew Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Bloomberg.
“An uptick in the interest to donate gives increased cover for Hamas. I’ve seen charities that were previously designated [for sanctions] by the US popping up, some under new names, but there are also lots of new ones,” the analyst continued.
Additionally, Hamas has been receiving around $30 million a month from its patron, Qatar, with Israeli approval, along with funds from the Palestinian Authority and local tax revenues. According to Israeli intelligence, Iran gives more than $100 million for Hamas’s “military”. Other income streams come from foreign investments and donations.
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