Israel seizes $4 million in Iranian money transfers to Hamas

Bennett said Israel was “pursuing the terrorists also through their pocketbooks.”

By World Israel News Staff 

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has signed an order to seize $4 million, which he said had been transferred from Iran to the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.

“The money was earmarked for developing the Hamas terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the manufacture of arms and ammunition and payment to members of the organization,” said the defense minister’s statement issued on Thursday.

The financing source, said Bennett, is “the Iranian regime which operates against the State of Israel.”

In July, a senior Hamas delegation visiting Tehran discussed with Iranian leaders the development of closer ties that also included the establishment of a standing army in the Gaza Strip, according to a report in the Israel Hayom daily based on research conducted by Yoni Ben-Menachem of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

The Israeli order is directed at a company in the Gaza Strip which, according to the Israeli statement, is the main money changer for Hamas in the coastal enclave. Gaza has been the staging ground for massive rocket attacks on Israel as recently as this week.

The defense minister says that the order will enable Israel to operate against the chief money changer, identified as Zuhir Shamalah, and his family, throughout the world, by limiting their physical movement in various countries and their financial activity internationally.

Bennett said Israel was “pursuing the terrorists also through their pocketbooks.”

The defense minister said that in addition to the fight on the battlefield, Israel is engaged in a “widespread economic campaign against members of terror organizations around the world.”