meta_id 3551309

On October 2, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated one Hamas military wing member, two France-based individuals, and two affiliated entities for facilitating Hamas financing through sham charities and cryptocurrency channels. The action exposes a multi-year financing scheme that moved more than $2 million to Hamas between 2020 and 2026, with $1.5 million transferred after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The designated individuals include Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a Gaza-based battalion deputy in Hamas's military wing who oversaw financial networks using money services businesses and cryptocurrency wallets to transfer funds to the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades. France-based fundraisers Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid operated purported charities—Association Baraka and Ensemble C Mieux respectively—ostensibly to aid Gazan civilians but actually to raise and transfer money directly to al-Zaq for Hamas. The two individuals sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to al-Zaq and promoted each other's fundraising accounts on social media. The designations were issued pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended by Executive Order 13886, the United States' core counterterrorism sanctions authority. Hamas has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since October 31, 2001. As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of the designated persons within the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from conducting transactions involving the designated individuals or entities unless authorized by OFAC. Violations may result in civil or criminal penalties. Foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct significant transactions on behalf of designated persons risk secondary sanctions, including prohibition from maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts in the United States.