Israel Says Hamas Gets Online Donations Via Groups Posing as Gaza Charities

Galit Altstein
·5 min read
124

(Bloomberg) -- Israeli officials estimate Hamas is getting $8 million to $12 million a month through online donations, much of it through organizations posing as charities to help civilians in Gaza.

Most Read from Bloomberg

That would equate to a multi-fold increase for online funding compared to what the group was receiving before its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, according to several officials at Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing. They all spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of their work.

Washington also believes that Hamas receives significant funding from online-donation sites and it is determined to help Israel put a stop to that, according to a senior US official.

All the officials said tracking and quantifying Hamas’s fund raising is difficult because the organization has years of experience of getting around financial sanctions and other tools designed to choke off or restrict its access to money.

‘Financial Jihad’

“There is no question that there is a sharp increase in legitimate and illegitimate charitable giving to Palestinians in wake of the Gaza hostilities,” said Matthew Levitt, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who’s spent years covering groups such as Hamas, including while previously working at the US Treasury.

“An uptick in the interest to donate gives increased cover for Hamas,” said Levitt. “I’ve seen charities that were previously designated by the US popping up, some under new names, but there are also lots of new ones.”

Hamas officials publicly call for cash gifts for their fight against Israel.

“This is not just a humanitarian issue, despite its immense importance and Gaza’s need for any aid it can get,” Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas political leader, said in January. “This is financial jihad.”

Israel has stepped up efforts with its allies to counter Hamas’s fund raising. It is part of a 16-nation task force established since the war to trace the group’s financial activities. Other members include Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Canada.

The Israeli government also constantly updates a list of crowd-funding campaigns it says are run by Hamas, and pushes countries to clamp down on them.

The US has announced more financial sanctions on Hamas since Oct. 7 and pressed Gulf Arab states and other nations, including Turkey, to follow suit. All deny they’re hubs for Hamas to raise money and say they’ve stepped up efforts to curb money laundering.

Before the war, once donations were made to charities, money reached Hamas in different ways, including through aid convoys, the Israeli officials say. Another process is known as TBTF, or Trade-Based Terror Funding. This camouflages donations by asking local Gazan business owners to transfer money to Hamas, which has governed the territory since 2007. The businesses are then paid back in the form of goods, the Israeli officials said.

The officials say their most challenging task is determining whether a charity is legitimate or covertly assisting Hamas. They describe this process as an endless game of cat-and-mouse.

The US and European Union have considered Hamas a terrorist group for years, making it illegal in those countries to provide the group with money.

To get around the restrictions in the US and EU, Hamas raises money through organizations in other countries and which aren’t clearly linked to the group, the Israeli and US officials said.

War Rages

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its militants swarmed southern Israeli communities from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people. More than 25,000 people have been killed since Israel retaliated by attacking Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, inflaming tensions globally and leading to an outpouring of support for Palestinians, particularly from Arabs and Muslims.

The conflict continues to rage and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it could last many more months.

After Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, Israel imposed severe sanctions on it. But over the past decade, it allowed more goods and money in on the belief that Hamas was deterred and increasingly focused on improving the local economy, rather than fighting Israel.

Iran Funding

Starting about five years ago, Hamas’s expenditure was funded by about $30 million a month from Qatar alongside an allowance from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, all with Israeli approval. Those complemented meager local tax revenues.

Iran is said by Israeli intelligence to be funding Hamas military efforts with more than $100 million a year, money that comes alongside proceeds from Hamas investments in several countries and donations.

Iran has never commented on the extent to which it funds Hamas, but it openly supports the group. Hamas leaders have previously said Iran provides money because of their anti-Israel stance.

Despite the increase in donations, Hamas isn’t able to use them all at the moment because the war’s made it more difficult to move goods and equipment into Gaza, according to Levitt. Still, the group may save the funds for later, even if it loses power in Gaza, he said.

“Hamas is probably not able to transfer all that money right away, neither do they have the capacity to absorb it all immediately,” said Levitt.

--With assistance from Ben Bartenstein and John Bowker.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.