Hamas' "secret" foreign investment network
The German media Die Welt has indicated that Hamas has an international investment portfolio since the beginning of 2018. The newspaper reportedly accessed this information via a laptop computer belonging to the organisation that was found by Western security services. The computer contains details of Hamas's financial movements and budget from 2008 to 2018.
According to these documents, between mid-2017 and mid-2018, the Palestinian group had an investment fund of $49 million. Today, Die Welt has estimated that this amount has increased to more than 500 million dollars.
The money is said to come mainly from international construction companies. According to Die Welt, Hamas is reportedly financially involved in companies in Turkey, Sudan and Algeria, among other countries. The profits from these business operations are used for military purposes.
Of all the countries with which Hamas maintains business relations, Die Welt highlights the link between the Palestinian organisation and Turkey. In the last three years, Hamas has moved its business to Turkey. In particular, it works closely with the company Trend Gyo, according to the newspaper.
"Erdogan is deeply involved in Hamas activities in Turkey and meets regularly with Hamas leaders there," says Jonathan Schanzer, a former analyst of terrorist organisation financial flows at the US Treasury Department. The US, like other countries such as Canada, Australia, the UK, Japan and Israel, considers Hamas a terrorist organisation. Other nations such as Turkey, China and Russia do not. Schanzer also claimed that Erdogan "is fully aware of all Hamas activities, including those outside the political sphere".
Within Hamas, many Hamas militants are unaware of this information. Moreover, the person in charge of directing these investments would be Osama Abdel Karim, who resides in Lebanon and frequently travels to Turkey. Another prominent figure is Hisham Younis Qafisha, a board member of several Hamas-controlled companies, including Turkey's Trend Gyo. He also runs a Hamas company in Sudan specialising in road and bridge construction in the African country.
"Companies that generate steady revenues will be of great benefit to the terrorist group as long as they can operate openly and are not identified as illegal," Schanzer adds. These profits, in addition to being for military purposes, are also targeted at the Palestinian population. 29 million would go to Gaza, five million to the Palestinian office in Jerusalem and four million to the Arabs in Israel. In addition, nine million dollars are spent on activities abroad. According to Western security departments, 30 to 40 per cent of the funds are used to carry out military and terrorist operations.
In addition to Turkey, Iran is another country with which Hamas funding is often associated. In 2019, the United States sanctioned four men responsible for moving tens of millions of dollars from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to Hamas' operational arm in Gaza. Israel has also recently pointed to Qatar as a major financial supporter of Hamas. The Hebrew government has specifically referred to cryptocurrencies, claiming that this would be the new mode of financing. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has ordered the seizure of cryptocurrency accounts used by Hamas after discovering "a network of electronic wallets" in an operation.
The figures provided by Die Welt are "impossible to verify", as Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute and former US financial intelligence official points out. However, Levitt stresses that it is no secret that Hamas invests in companies in the region.
