For Third Time in Year, Israel Seizes Cryptocurrency Designated for Hamas

Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Monday signed a seizure order for cryptocurrency amounting to tens of thousands of shekalim from 12 digital accounts, funds meant to support the Hamas terror organization. The order targeted about 30 digital wallets belonging to businesses that assisted the Al’matchadun currency exchange company owned by the Shamlach family from the Gaza Strip and designated as a terror organization. The Shamlach family owned a portion of the seized cryptocurrency.

The Shamlach family, through the currency exchange companies it owns, assists the Hamas terror organization, particularly its military arm, by transferring tens of millions of dollars a year. As such, the companies were designated terror organizations by Israel.

The cryptocurrency was confiscated in a joint operation of the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing in Israel (NBCTF), the Police’s national cyber unit Lahav 433, and the IDF’s Intelligence Division.

Gantz stated Monday that Israel will “continue to expand the tools to cope with terror and the companies that support it.”

He commended the Israeli organizations for “their intelligence, operational and legal cooperation. We will continue to take all the measures necessary to fight terror.”

This is the third time in the past year that Israel has conducted such an operation against Hamas’s financial sources.