Israel and Binance Join Hands to Suspend Hamas-Linked Accounts — The Wider Ramifications

 Latest Happenings

• Hamas began horrendous, relentless attacks from Gaza into Israel on Saturday 7th October, 2023.
• Israel Police declared the freezing of digital currency accounts belonging to Hamas.
• Binance is putting in a constant effort to seize as many accounts as possible to combat terror financing.
• Crypto Aid Israel raises donations for conflict-affected Israelis with the help of a multi-signature wallet supported by Israeli banks and regulators.
• Hamas’ terrorist organization launched a fundraising campaign on social networks, encouraging people to deposit cryptocurrencies into their accounts.

A multi-pronged attack on Israel by the Hamas terrorist organization over the weekend, reminiscent of the 1973 Yom Kippur assault has broken into all-out war, with the former’s defense minister summoning a complete blockade of the Palestinian enclave Gaza. This caused widespread damage to residents. As of Wednesday, it’s calculated that over 1,000 people have perished in Israel, while Gaza has seen around 900 casualties.

The ongoing turmoil between Israel and Hamas has taken a deadly turn. Quite recently, Israel’s cyber unit collaborated with the leader of technologies Blockchain ‘Binance’ to hunt down accounts linked to the terrorist organization Hamas.

Operation 1: Success in Identifying and Deactivating Multiple Crypto Accounts

Tuesday, 10th October 2023, Israel’s Cybercrime Unit collaborated with Binance to freeze numerous accounts that were linked with Hamas, the terrorist organization. This operation was carried out in conjunction with the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Security Agency, and national intelligence agencies.

To drive this operation to success, Binance played a crucial role in identifying and deactivating accounts linked to terrorists and supporting Israel completely. One of Binance’s spokespersons mentioned,” We are committed to supporting the safety and security of the blockchain ecosystem and the global community through our proactive work.”

How did Hamas raise funds?

Israel’s Police stated that the accounts frozen were actually created by Hamas to raise funds and support their terrorist activities.

What exactly happened?

According to the latest specifications with the ongoing warfare,

‘The Hamas terrorist organization began a fundraising campaign on social platforms, provoking the general public to deposit virtual currencies into their accounts.’

To help the situation and prevent more damage, the Police Cyber Unit and the Ministry of Defense took matters into their hands to locate and freeze the accounts and divert all the funds safely to the state treasury.

Operation 2

In another operation conducted by Israel’s Police Cyber unit and British Police, a Barclay Bank Account was seized, which was also heavily used with the same intention to pull donations.

Past History

Don’t be surprised this is not the first time that terrorist organizations are using digital currencies to fund their actions.

In 2019, Hamas, a Terrorist Organization, called for its very first crypto donation to bypass international sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal notified that between the span of June 2021 and August 2023, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, involved in the recent Israel attack, collected $93 million in cryptocurrency, while Hamas gathered $41 million.

In another finding, over 190 accounts were seized. Interestingly, the majority of these accounts were of Palestinian firms that were connected to Hamas.

Hamas’s Wealth

Key Findings 1

According to a research Report by Chainanalysis.

‘Hamas managed to procure tens of thousands of dollars via virtual currencies.’

Though the military branch of Hamas declared that they shut down every donation activity, the Israeli government still managed to catch hold of 1.7 million dollars worth of virtual accounts linked to Hezbollah and the Iranian Paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force.

Key Findings 2

Another important finding by Todayq News that relates to the ongoing situation is that during the warfare between Russia and Ukraine, Ukraine received around 70 million dollars as a virtual donation in the form of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

How does this affect the Global cryptocurrency market?

The growing tension between Israel and Hamas has put the global cryptocurrency market in a questionable position, mirroring the unrest in the geopolitical scenario.

This clash has brought forward many concerns to investors regarding the holding of digital assets in the Blockchain ecosystem.

Nevertheless, even in the toughest time, the Web3 communities came together and have now established ‘Crypto Aid Israel’. This initiative aspires to raise funds for those affected by the war. To make things more secure, the organization introduced a Multi-signature wallet, which will be controlled by many parties. The reason to do this is to accept donations in various virtual currencies, which include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other leading dollar-pegged stablecoins like USDC and USDT.

To support this cause, many Israeli banks and regulatory authorities set foot to facilitate the smooth flow of virtual currencies to help those impacted.

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