Israel freezes crypto accounts seeking Hamas donations, police say

LONDON (Reuters) – Israel has frozen cryptocurrency accounts used to solicit donations for the Palestinian militant group Hamas on social media, police stated on Tuesday.

Hamas launched devastating assaults from Gaza into Israel on Saturday, in one of the vital severe escalations within the Israel-Palestinian battle in years.

“In accordance with suspicions, with the outbreak of the warfare, Hamas’ terrorist organisation initiated a fundraising marketing campaign on social networks, urging the general public to deposit cryptocurrencies into their accounts,” a police assertion stated.

“The Police Cyber Unit and Ministry of Protection instantly took motion to find and freeze these accounts, with the help of the Binance crypto change, in an effort to divert the funds to the state treasury.”

The assertion didn’t give additional particulars of what number of accounts have been frozen, nor the worth of crypto seized.

Reuters was unable to achieve Hamas spokespeople for remark.

“Over the previous few days our workforce has been working in actual time, across the clock, to assist ongoing efforts to fight terror financing,” a Binance spokesperson stated, including that the change “actively companions” with world legislation enforcement businesses and regulators.

“The information we use to pinpoint people, addresses, and infrastructures related to particular organisations stems from intelligence supplied by legislation enforcement and investigative instruments we, and our companions, have developed.”

Hamas had endorsed crypto as a fundraising technique for years, however stated in April it will cease receiving fundraising by way of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, citing a rise in “hostile” exercise in opposition to donors.

Reuters reported in Could that Israel had seized round 190 crypto accounts at Binance since 2021, together with two it stated have been linked to Islamic State and dozens it stated have been owned by Palestinian corporations related to Hamas.

In response to that article, Binance stated that it really works with legislation enforcement and “leverages data that’s solely out there to them in an effort to establish people working accounts for illicit organisations”.

(Reporting by Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem, extra reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, writing by Elizabeth Howcroft, modifying by Nick Macfie)