The IDF recently announced the neutralization of terrorist Tahsin Al-Andis, a key funder of Gaza-based terrorist groups, and the killing of Syrian businessman Baraa Katerji, linked to Hezbollah and ISIS.
The IDF spokesperson announced on Saturday that two days prior, the terrorist Tahsin Al-Andis, who had transferred funds to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, including the military wing of Hamas, was neutralized. Additionally, on Friday, a building used by the company "Al-Khara," where Al-Andis worked, was surrounded by IDF forces.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Al-Khara has been a central infrastructure for storing and transferring funds for terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and for executing terrorist operations.
The building is located in the humanitarian area of the Deir el-Balah region and serves as a base for terrorist activity. Saudi channel Al Hadath reported that Israel has changed its tactics and started targeting funders of Hezbollah and Hamas, even in Iran and Yemen.
The elimination in the Gaza Strip followed the killing of Katerji, a Syrian businessman close to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Katerji’s vehicle was struck while traveling in the Al-Sabura area, west of Damascus, on the highway connecting Syria to Lebanon.
Tal Bari, head of the research department at the "Alma" institute, explained: “Katerji assisted in directly supplying fuel to Hezbollah and the Shiite Axis forces operating under the Quds Force in Syria and was involved in money laundering.
Coordinated campaign against Katerji aimed to pressure and extort
“He was also included on US, European, and Saudi sanctions lists due to his role in strengthening the Assad regime’s economy. The US Treasury Department reported that Katerji acted as a mediator between the Syrian regime and ISIS in closing oil deals,” he said.
Bari notes that in May 2016 and December 2017, articles about Katerji were published in Al-Akhbar, a major Hezbollah mouthpiece: "The December 2017 article was titled 'Catch the Whale,' and it seems the articles were part of a coordinated campaign by the Shiite Axis against Katerji, likely aimed at applying pressure and extortion within financial disputes and control struggles."
According to foreign reports prior to the publication, the Hezbollah money exchanger Muhammad Sarour was killed after being shot five times in the town of Beit Mery near Beirut.
Information provided by Israel, starting in 2016, to law enforcement agencies in the US and globally, and recently through the National Headquarters for Economic Warfare Against Terrorism (MATAL) in the Defense Ministry, described Sarour as a mediator between the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon and Hamas’s military wing, and also working with Hezbollah’s financial unit.
In August 2019, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on four individuals, including Sarour, for aiding in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars from the Quds Force, responsible for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's external operations, to Hamas through Hezbollah in Lebanon for terrorist activities.
The Treasury noted that Sarour was "responsible for transferring tens of millions of dollars annually from the Quds Force to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades," the military wing of Hamas.