A British crypto account at Barclays has been frozen by Israeli police after it was linked to a cryptocurrency theft worth INR 40 million carried out by Hamas.
Israeli computer crime experts worked with British police to shut down the account, which had been used by the radical Palestinian group to raise funds.
Israel’s cybercrime unit has frozen a large number of crypto accounts being operated by or for Hamas, they revealed on 10th October.
They said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “The Israel Police’s Cyber Unit, in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Security Agency, and other national intelligence agencies, has successfully frozen cryptocurrency accounts used by Hamas for fundraising their activities.
“The Police Cyber Unit worked in coordination with the British police and managed to freeze an additional account at the British ‘Barclays’ bank, the details of which were published by Hamas for the purpose of depositing donation funds.”
Delhi Police’s Special Cell first began investigating the missing INR 40 million (GBP 391,534) after it was stolen from an Indian businessman in 2021.
The victim filed a complaint to local police about a fraudulent transfer of Bitcoins, Ethereum, and Bitcoin cash from his cyber wallet.
Police traced some wallet IDs that had received the loot but found it difficult to discover who operated them.
Meanwhile, Israel’s secret agency, Mossad, exchanged intelligence with their Indian counterparts about radical groups operating some wallets to fund terrorist activities at the same time.
When India’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) service ran a match on the wallets they found that several of them were a part of the case in Delhi.
They also discovered that many of the addresses were being operated by the al Qassam cyber terrorist wing of Hamas.
They also found that one of the seized wallets belonged to Hamas operatives like Ahmed Q H Safi, from Ramallah, Palestine, Ahmed Marzooq, of Giza, Egypt, and Mohammad Naseer Ibrahim Abdulla from Gaza.
Investigators say that the cryptocurrencies were bounced around a series of private wallets before they landed in the terror group’s accounts.
Former Delhi Police Deputy Malhotra confirmed on 11th October: “Yes, our investigation has led us to several wallets linked to the al Qassam brigades.”
Israel Police concluded: “The Israel Police, Ministry of Defense, and other partners will continue the fight against terrorist financing and targeting the strategic financial assets of terrorist organisations.”
