Israel and the USA ignored Hamas' million-dollar deals
The radical Islamic group Hamas has apparently been able to amass a gigantic fortune untouched for years. Although the transactions were known in countless areas, neither the USA nor Israel reacted with sanctions. This is revealed in a media report.
According to a newspaper report, Israel's security authorities uncovered millions in Hamas business years ago without the governments of Israel or the USA taking immediate action. As the New York Times reported, the security authorities were able to access detailed lists of assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a computer belonging to a senior Hamas representative in 2018.
Despite this, none of the Hamas companies listed in the list had been sanctioned for years. Nor has any pressure been exerted on Turkey, the hub of the financing network, to close it down. According to the report, Hamas controlled mining, chicken farming and road construction companies in Sudan, two skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates, a real estate developer in Algeria and a real estate company listed on the Turkish stock exchange. The documents had been viewed, the newspaper wrote.
The authorities had passed them on within their own government and in Washington, but nothing had happened. It is now known in both countries that the money flows from the Islamist Hamas helped it to build up its military infrastructure and thus laid the foundations for the attacks on October 7.
Even after sanctions were finally imposed on the financing network in 2022, people associated with Hamas were able to make millions by selling shares in a company that was on the sanctions list, it was said. There are fears that such money flows will enable Hamas to rebuild its structures after the end of the Gaza war.
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Despite the revelations of Hamas's financial activities during the Israel-Hamas war, the USA and Israel did not impose sanctions on Hamas-affiliated businesses as early as when the details were uncovered. Subsequently, the USA and Israel remained silent, allowing Hamas to continue utilizing these funds to strengthen its military capabilities and potentially rebuild after the Gaza war.
Source: www.ntv.de
