Over the course of the war, the Israeli army and the Shin Bet announced the targeting of 16 people whom they described as the most prominent workers in the field of money exchange and money transfer for the benefit of the Hamas movement, as part of operations aimed at striking the movement’s financial and military structure.
The Israeli army spokeswoman, Ella Wawiyeh, stated in a post on the “X” platform that the targets were involved in managing and transferring money to support the military wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, through a network that includes dozens of money changers distributed between Turkey and the Gaza Strip, estimating the amount of money that passed through this network at more than a billion dollars.
Wawiya indicated that the list of targets includes prominent figures, most notably Ibrahim Abu Shamala, who served as the financial official in the movement’s military wing, and Muhammad Abu Alwan, who was killed this week and accused of managing the political wing’s funds, in addition to Khader al-Jamasi, Ihab Kreizm, and Hussein al-Qudra, who handled the clearing operations and the receipt and delivery of funds for Hamas.
According to the Israeli account, the transferred funds were used to finance the movement’s members, develop its military capabilities, and rebuild its infrastructure, as well as finance attacks targeting Israeli forces and Israelis.
Wawiya concluded by emphasizing that the army and the Shin Bet will continue to track down the network of money changers and all parties directly involved in financing Hamas’ activities, warning that there are other parties in the Gaza Strip that are still active in the areas of money transfer.
It is noteworthy that these data related to the roles of people and the volume of transferred funds are based exclusively on the official story of the Israeli army and the Shin Bet, and are part of the military strategy aimed at drying up the sources of the movement’s funding and its financial networks.
