Italian police have arrested seven people after an investigation into the alleged redirection of funds from humanitarian causes to Hamas.
The suspects arrests were made in a series of raids across major cities, including Milan.
Police have also issued arrest warrants for two more suspects who are currently out of the country.
The nine individuals are understood to have been involved in several associations collecting donations “for humanitarian purposes for the Palestinian people”.
But investigators believe that more than 70 per cent of these funds were used to finance “associations based in Gaza, the Palestinian territories, or Israel, owned, controlled, or linked to Hamas”.
Some of this money even allegedly found its way to “family members implicated in terrorist attacks”.
More than €7 million (just over £6 million) has been seized by authorities.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi praised police for the operation, which he said “lifted the veil on behaviour and activities which, pretending to be initiatives in favour of the Palestinian population, concealed support for and participation in terrorist organisations”.
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