- Israel Police announced the freezing of cryptocurrency accounts belonging to Hamas.
- It said it worked with Binance to locate and freeze the accounts.
Israel froze cryptocurrency accounts belonging to Hamas, with the cooperation of Binance, Israeli police announced on Tuesday.
Israel Police said in a post on X that its Cyber Unit worked in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense, the Israeli Security Agency, and other national intelligence agencies to pinpoint and freeze the funds.
These accounts contained cryptocurrencies that had been amassed through fundraising campaigns conducted by Hamas on social media, police said in a statement provided to Reuters.
Israeli police told Reuters that it took immediate action to locate and freeze the accounts, with Binance's assistance, "in order to divert the funds to the state treasury."
It is unclear if the accounts were simply frozen or if the money had been seized. It is also unclear how many accounts were frozen or what the value of the cryptocurrencies in them was.
Israel Police did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
A spokesperson for Binance told Insider in a statement that its team had been "working in real time, around the clock, to support ongoing efforts to combat terror financing."
The spokesperson added that Binance "actively partners" with global law enforcement agencies and regulators, using intelligence provided by them to pinpoint individuals, addresses, and infrastructures associated with specific organizations.
In an X post, Israeli police said it will continue to fight against "terrorist financing" by "targeting the strategic financial assets of terrorist organizations."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Hamas may have funded its surprise attack on Israel through cryptocurrency.
The news outlet, citing Israeli government seizure orders and blockchain analytics reports, said that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and their Lebanese ally Hezbollah received large amounts of funds through crypto.
Wallets connected to Hamas received about $41 million in crypto between the summer of 2021 and around June of this year, according to research by crypto analytics firm, BitOK, per The Journal.