Israel: Binance Freezes Crypto Accounts Suspected of Being Linked to Hamas
Israeli authorities collaborate with Binance to freeze accounts linked to Hamas, accused of exploiting crypto channels to collect funds and donations.
In recent developments, Israeli authorities, in collaboration with Binance, have frozen all accounts suspected of being connected to Hamas, which exploited them to receive donations.
In the past few hours, the Israeli police and its specialized cyber security unit have announced a collaboration with the Binance exchange to freeze any account linked (even potentially) to Hamas. This initiative, stemming from the desire of the Ministry of Defense in the challenging context of the ongoing war, is part of Israel's counterattack against the Palestinian political-military organization. This organization is believed to exploit both CeFi and crypto channels to collect funds and donations.
The Israel Police's Cyber Unit, in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Security Agency, and other national intelligence agencies, has successfully frozen cryptocurrency accounts used by Hamas for fundraising their activities pic.twitter.com/PrUV4ybrxZ — Israel Police (@israelpolice) October 10, 2023
In this regard, the exchange has actively participated in identifying these accounts. the CEX stated to the press:
"Binance actively partners with global law enforcement agencies and regulators, united in the mission to combat terror financing. Over the past few days, our team has been working in real-time, around the clock to support ongoing efforts to combat terror financing. We are committed to ensuring the safety and security not just of the blockchain ecosystem, but also the global community, through our proactive work."
Hamas, for its part, is no stranger to exploiting crypto channels to pursue its objectives. An initial appeal to receive funding and evade international sanctions was recorded in February 2019. A Reuters report a few months ago highlighted how, as early as 2021, Israel had already blocked about 200 accounts on Binance. Chainalysis, on the other hand, had repeatedly pointed out how Hamas had managed over the years to collect substantial sums of money through cryptocurrencies.
This circumstance was confirmed by Israel itself, which last June declared that it had seized about $1.7 million in crypto from accounts linked to Hezbollah, another Lebanese political-military organization and ally of Hamas. Moreover, both organizations (defined as "terrorist" by the international community) have been excluded from the global financial system, and cryptocurrencies have represented a partial but automatic solution to the problem.
