Defense Ministry of Israel Seizes 12 Crypto Accounts Related to Terror Group

The Defense Ministry of Israel has seized 30 cryptocurrency wallets related to the Hamas military wing, a militant group that governs the Gaza Strip.

According to The Times of Israel, the crypto wallets are connected to 12 accounts related to the al-Mutahadun exchange, used for funding the terrorist group.

Al-Mutahadun is owned by the Shamlah family, according to the Defense Ministry, “assists the Hamas terror group, and especially its military wing, by transferring funds amounting to tens of millions of dollars a year.”

“We continue to expand our tools to deal with terrorism, and with companies that supply it with an economic oxygen pipeline,” Benjamin Gantz said in a statement.

“I would like to congratulate all the organizations on their intelligence, operational and legal cooperation. We will continue to work together, in order to fight terror by any means and in any way.”

Terrorism and crypto

The terrorist group’s military wing was cash-strapped in 2019 and asked for Bitcoin (BTC) donations. According to The Times of Israel, Hamas fought 3 wars with Israel and is considered a terrorist group by the EU, U.S., and Isreal.

Just because crypto can be used in every situation, it is not bound to support terrorism.

Recently, crypto was used by the “Freedom Convoy” in Canada as the government tried to freeze the bank accounts of the protesters. Additionally, digital currencies are used for donations to the civilians and military of Ukraine.

Since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb 24, people from all over the world have raised more than $24 million in crypto, according to the blockchain analysis firm called Elliptic.
The direct donation, however, is not the only way people and organizations have been raising funds. Moreover, different types of donation techniques are used like selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of the national flag of Ukraine and raising through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called the UkraineDAO.

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