The chocolate bars that were confiscated on Monday from Hamas were meant to serve as an alternative currency to fund the Gaza-based terror organization, according to the Defense Ministry.
Officials had been noticing suspicious imports of food products to Gaza as of late. The suspicion was that Hamas was trying to gain funding by operating a broad network of food imports, including the chocolate bars.
The products were meant to be sold by Hamas to the people of Gaza, and the money from the sales was meant to serve as income, according to a joint investigation by IDF intelligence, the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel, and the Tax Authority’s National Center for Cargo Inspection.
The investigators focused on two import companies, Al Mutahadun for Exchange and the Arab Training Company China, which belong to the same family headed by a Gaza money-exchanger named Zahir Younes Shmalach.
In May, IDF intelligence discovered that Shmalach was using his companies to funnel tens of millions of dollars from Iran to Hamas. The companies were immediately put on a list of terror organizations by the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority.
The investigation of Shamlach’s companies led to the seizure of the chocolate bars today.
Since the beginning of the current government’s term on June 14th, Israel has been withholding the monthly Qatari payments to Hamas in Gaza, increasingly deteriorating its economy.
“We were able to hit a number of [Hamas] funding networks and to confiscate goods, thanks to an Executive seizure order signed by Benny Gantz,” the press representative said.
“Israel will continue acting to prevent the empowerment of Hamas, who is building up military force instead of taking care of the people of the [Gaza] Strip who are collapsing from the economic burden,” Gantz said.
“We will continue to hunt down networks that fund terror, no matter what method they choose,” he said.