The Government of Israel confiscated more than 30 wallets of cryptocurrency from an exchange that is very small and is Gaza-based. These wallets are being linked with Hamas, a group of terrorists, who have supported the military operations and army of Gaza. The set of 30 cryptocurrency wallets is rumored to be found associated with Hamas by the authorities of Israel on Monday and they were immediately seized. The wallets were handled by 12 accounts that were supposedly utilized by leaders of the Hamas terrorist group to fund their operations against the Government of Israel.
Cryptocurrency, A New Way Of Getting Donations to Hamas
As reported in The Times of Israel, the Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, stated that al-Mutahadun was helping Hamas by giving them more than 10 million dollars every year. Though the exact money transacted and crypto-assets seized are not confirmed, the official statement of Benny Gantz made it clear that the Government would take strict actions to cut off the terrorist actions.
The Banks and the agencies dedicated to the enforcement of law in the whole world have increased their tools to track transactions of cryptocurrency to catch the criminals. However, in a report stated by Chainalysis, the Blockchain tracking firm, only a very small amount is used for criminal activity. As per sources, the Hamas group has started taking donations since 2019 due to the fact that their actions were threatened by several economic sanctions.
The capture of these crypto wallets has been executed by the NBCTF who also executed a similar operation last July where it seized wallets containing ETH, USDT, DOGE, LTC, and many other similar assets. In the views of Cyohertrace, a tracking firm, the July funds that were seized were utilized by a part of the Hamas military also known as the al Qassam Brigades. These incidents are also only limited to terrorist group activities, as Ukraine and Canada are also seen accepting cryptocurrency funds.
