The United States remains committed to dismantling Hamas’s global support networks and denying the group the resources it needs to carry out terrorist attacks. Toward that end, the Treasury Department has designated a member of Hamas’s military wing, along with two France-based individuals and two affiliated entities that provide critical financing to Hamas.
These designations expose a sophisticated, multi‑year financing architecture that moved more than $2 million to Hamas through deceptive charitable fronts and cryptocurrency channels, demonstrating the organization’s persistent ability to adapt its fundraising mechanisms to evade detection.
“Terrorist organizations like Hamas rely on sophisticated financial facilitators and fraudulent schemes designed to exploit the public to sustain their operations,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
These designations are part of an operation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to dismantle several Hamas fundraising ventures, including those active inside the United States. Treasury continues to work closely with the FBI to expose and disrupt Hamas’s continued exploitation of the charitable sector to finance terrorism and to dismantle key nodes of Hamas’s clandestine financial infrastructure. Treasury will continue to sustain pressure on Hamas’s global network of financial facilitators, operatives, and sham charities that support its terrorist activities.
One of the individuals designated included Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a Gaza-based battalion deputy in the Hamas military wing who oversees a financial network that has used various money services businesses and cryptocurrency wallets to transfer significant funds to the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades.
Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid who operate from France were also designated. They run purported charities ostensibly to raise money for humanitarian purposes to aid Gazan civilians. In reality, they partner with al-Zaq to raise and transfer money directly to him, which al-Zaq in turn funnels to Hamas. During a six-year period from 2020–2026, Barika, Oualid, and al-Zaq collected more than $2 million for Hamas, of which $1.5 million was collected after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Barika and Oualid sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to al-Zaq.
Barika jointly established France-based Association Baraka with al-Zaq, which he uses as a mechanism to solicit public donations that are sent to al-Zaq for transfer to Hamas. Oualid established France-based Ensemble C Mieux, which, like Association Baraka, she uses to raise money to send to al-Zaq and Hamas.
The Treasury Department, said Secretary Bessent, “will continue to identify, isolate, and impose consequences on those who provide Hamas with the financial lifelines it needs to survive.”