The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several parties in relation to the raising of over $2 million for Islamist militant group Hamas.
The Treasury designated a Hamas military-wing member, two France-based individuals and two charities it says helped move more than $2 million to Hamas through a sophisticated six-year fundraising operation that used cryptocurrency and purported humanitarian donations.
The department alleged that Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid raised funds in France for humanitarian causes, then transferred it to Hamas, the group designated as a terrorist organization in numerous jurisdictions and which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007.
The network collected more than $2 million between 2020 and 2026, including $1.5 million after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Treasury said. It said the pair sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto to al-Zaq. Treasury did not say the full $2 million moved in cryptocurrency. It separately alleged that Barika and Oualid sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto to Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a Gaza-based deputy battalion commander in Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades.
