As the Israel-Hamas war enters its 74th day, a battle is raging quietly on another front. Israel and its western allies are trying to come to grips with the terrorist group’s sprawling financial empire.
So what? Over the past three decades, Hamas has built a dizzyingly complex system of global financing that tunnels from London and Istanbul to Qatar and Tehran, darting in and out of Muslim Brotherhood circles.
Dismantling these flows is a key part of Israel’s war effort. Several intelligence sources and analysts have briefed Tortoise about how much of a challenge this will be for any government set on doing this.
The basics. Hamas’s broad financial flows before the war started can be divided by source:
Iran has been the most consistent supporter of Hamas’s armed wing. US and Israeli officials estimate that Iran provides the terrorist group with anywhere from $70-100 million a year.
Qatar supported Hamas’s civilian administration with the agreement of the Israeli government and the US. It pledged $360 million to Gaza in 2021.
Personal jihad. Hamas approaches wealthy people in the Middle East for private donations. “Their pitch basically is: You may not be brave enough to wage jihad yourself. So, wage jihad with your money,” one intelligence source said.
Taxes and tolls were among the biggest earners for Hamas before the war. This could be as simple as an aid worker paying several hundred dollars for a coffee in a particular café in Gaza to as complex as a $1.50 tax on every pack of cigarettes imported from Egypt.
Dark arts. The WSJ reported that Hamas raised tens of millions of dollars through cryptocurrency trading, although much of this narrative is disputed by financial experts.
Holla a hawala. Financial regulators and commercial banks will be looking most closely at a vast network of investments in businesses, properties and charities across the Middle East, South East Asia and Europe.
In 1993, at a conference at the Marriott Hotel in Philadelphia, which was bugged by the FBI, senior Hamas operatives agreed to spread their financial operations into Europe and use humanitarian relief funds to advance Hamas’s agenda.
Over the last 30 years this strategy has co-opted legitimate businesses and charities, many of them linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is effectively the Palestinian wing.
There is no easily identifiable smoking gun. Instead, Hamas operatives and middlemen most likely pay for Kalashnikovs in the Balkans or cement in Egypt through informal “hawala” systems that allow money to be moved around on trust rather than in traceable bank transfers.
- Israeli intelligence is also investigating TikTok accounts and other social media accounts accused of raising cash for Hamas.
- Experts agree that Turkey, where a vast amount of Hamas money is thought to be held or managed, will be key to any effort to crack down on the money.
The English connection. Tortoise understands that the UK government has reopened work on Hamas’s finances. The US and the UK both sanctioned several top Hamas activists in November. They included:
- Abdelbasit Hamza, a Sudan-based financier who owned a network of companies that laundered money and traded in currency; and
- Nabil Chouman, a Lebanon-based currency exchanger, who allegedly channelled money to Hamas.
The UK designated Hamas’s military wing a terror group in 2001 but designated its political wing a terror group only in 2021. This meant political leaders of Hamas could tread a careful line of deniability for two decades, with political leaders like Muhammad Qassem Sawalha, a British citizen, even being hosted by MPs including Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament.
“Hamas’s money in the UK is wrapped up in property. It’s incredibly complex,” another intelligence source said. “We lifted the lid several years ago and said, ‘this bloody stinks but we don’t know what the hell is going on’.”
One thing is clear: Gaza may be a wasteland but Hamas still has plenty of cash hidden away.
