Israeli authorities reported on Tuesday that they had frozen Hamas’ cryptocurrency accounts with Binance’s assistance.
According to a post by Israel Police on X, its Cyber Unit worked with the Ministry of Defense, the Israeli Security Agency, and other national intelligence organizations to identify and freeze the funds.
According to the police, who submitted a statement to Reuters, these accounts were filled with digital currencies that Hamas had collected through online fundraising activities.
In order to redirect the funds to the state treasury, Binance’s aid was used by Israeli authorities, according to Reuters, to find and freeze the accounts.
It is not clear whether the money had been confiscated or if the accounts had just been stopped. Additionally, it is unknown how many accounts were frozen or how much money was in cryptocurrencies in those accounts.
A representative for Binance told in a statement that the company’s team had been working nonstop and in real time to help continuing efforts to combat the financing of terrorism.
According to the spokesman, Binance “actively partners” with international law enforcement authorities and regulatory bodies, leveraging its information to identify people, places, and infrastructures linked to particular organizations.
Israeli police announced in an X post that they would keep going after the strategic financial assets of terrorist groups in their fight against terrorism financing.
According to the report, Hamas might have used crypto to pay for its unexpected attack on Israel.
The news organisation said that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and its Lebanese allies Hezbollah received significant sums of money using cryptocurrency, citing Israeli government seizure orders and blockchain analytics data.
According to analysis by crypto analytics company BitOK, wallets linked to Hamas received around $41 million in cryptocurrency between the summer of 2021 and about June of this year.
