Israel received intelligence in 2018 that Hamas was raking in profits from businesses across the Middle East and North Africa but did nothing to stymie its progress, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Israeli security officials obtained documents from the computer of a senior Hamas official that revealed the terrorist group controlled mining, chicken farming, and road-building operations in Sudan, two skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates, a property development company in Algeria, and a Turkish real-estate firm upon which the operation depended, the report said.
The total value of these assets was estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars, it added.
The documents from 2018 were “a potential road map for choking off Hamas’s money and thwarting its plans,” yet no action was taken, the Times reported.
No part of this Hamas financial network was sanctioned by the United States or Israel until 2022, at which point Hamas officials were able to sell shares in their sanctioned companies and line their pockets with millions of dollars, the report said.
“Everyone is talking about failures of intelligence on October 7, but no one is talking about the failure to stop the money,” Udi Levy, a former chief of Mossad’s economic warfare division, told the Times. “It’s the money – the money – that allowed this.”
When the Hamas financial network was discovered in 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was actively encouraging Qatar to send money to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the Times reported.
“The Turkish company at the heart of the operation had such a sheen of legitimacy that major American and European banks managed shares on behalf of clients,” the report said. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invested tens of thousands of dollars before the company was placed under sanction.”
Netanyahu denied allegations that he was too lenient with Hamas or that he took a gamble by allowing it to accrue funds to keep the Palestinian Authority and Hamas separate. He also declined to answer questions by the Times about the ledgers found in 2018.
US presses skeptical Turkey to curb Hamas fund-raising
US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said he had discussed with Turkish government officials on November 30 his “profound concern” about Hamas raising funds domestically and potentially breaking local law.
Turkey was “prominent” in Hamas fundraising schemes, and the group is likely to take advantage of that as it seeks more funding amid its war with Israel, he said in Istanbul.
Unlike most of its Western allies and some Gulf states, Turkey does not view Hamas as a terrorist group and even hosts some of its members.
Reuters contributed to this report.