The United States is determined to destroy the covert network that supports the Hamas terrorist organization. On January 21 the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against Hamas’s covert links to nonprofit organizations.
Hamas’s insidious practice of operating behind civilian organizations endangers Palestinians and undermines efforts to build a lasting and prosperous peace. By exposing organizations with secret ties to Hamas, OFAC is strengthening the international community’s ability to support legitimate Palestinian interests.
“Hamas continues to show a callous disregard for the welfare of the Palestinian people,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.
The U.S. action targets six Gaza-based organizations that claim to provide medical care to Palestinian civilians but in fact support the military wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The fraudulent nature of these organizations, which use deception to raise funds from international donors, demonstrates Hamas’s perfidy and deprives innocent civilians of the medical care they need.
Treasury Department is also targeting the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, an organization that purports to broadly represent Palestinians but is clandestinely controlled by Hamas and has been a key backer of several so-called flotillas attempting to access Gaza.
Hamas secretly operates a network of organizations in Gaza that purport to be independent but are subordinate to the Hamas military wing. Similar to the U.S.-designated al-Weam Charitable Society, these groups hide their affiliation to Hamas in order to raise funds from overseas donors, many of whom are unwitting, and thereby divert donations intended for the Palestinian people to enable Hamas’s terrorism.
As part of Treasury’s commitment to safeguard the humanitarian sector and enable the continued provision of aid to the Palestinian people, OFAC is exposing six Gaza-based organizations that support Hamas’s military wing, as revealed by documentary evidence taken from Hamas offices after October 7, 2023.
These are the Gaza-based organizations Waed Society Gaza (Waed Society), Al-Nur Society Gaza (Al-Nur), Qawafil Society Gaza (Qawafil), Al-Falah Society Gaza (Al-Falah), Merciful Hands Gaza (Merciful Hands), and Al-Salameh Society Gaza (Al-Salameh). They are organized by, and integrated into, Hamas’s military wing. Members of Hamas’s internal security forces are formally assigned to work in these so-called charities, specifically the Waed Society and Al-Salameh. Documentary evidence captured from Hamas also shows that Hamas provides its fighters with detailed instructions on how they must navigate the group’s own bureaucracy to formally request their affiliated organizations provide their fighters with specific projects and services.
As Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley noted, “The Trump Administration will not look the other way while Hamas leadership and enablers exploit the financial system to fund terrorist operations.”
The United States is determined to destroy the covert network that supports the Hamas terrorist organization. On January 21 the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control took action against Hamas’s covert links to nonprofit organizations.
