Gaza Now, an online media channel supporting Hamas, and its owner, Mustafa Ayash, have been sanctioned jointly by the United States and the United Kingdom for their involvement in fundraising activities for the group.
This move comes after the Oct 7 attack in Israel and emphasizes a unified approach in the attempt to restrict funding for Hamas. The sanctions have been imposed by the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) under the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of Foreign Sanctions Implementation in the U.K. on two entities and an additional individual affiliated with funding activities of Gaza Now. Also, several cryptocurrency addresses that were used by Ayash and Gaza Now for fundraising were disclosed as part of the sanctions.
Fundraising by Gaza Now cryptocurrency
Gaza Now’s cryptocurrency efforts, however, were a small part of their overall activities despite their wide range of fundraising initiatives. The blockchain analysis of Elliptic shows that Gaza Now has got around $21,000 in cryptocurrencies as donations proved following the incident on Oct. 7. Additional details from TRM Labs’ 2023 Illicit Crypto Economy Report are consistent with Elliptic’s conclusions suggesting that donations to terrorist groups such as Hamas and ISIS through crypto are usually small. The report points out that most of these contributions were less than $500, with a considerable proportion being less than $100, while only a small fraction was above $5,000.
Cryptocurrency in terrorism financing
The TRM Labs report highlighted the cryptocurrency preferences among terrorist financiers, identifying a sharp rise in the use of Tether (USDT) on the TRON blockchain. TRON’s favorable characteristics in low transaction costs, stable pricing, and apparent difficulty in tracing transactions are behind this choice. In spite of these preferences, the extent of cryptocurrency use in terrorism financing is small, with the report highlighting that most crypto donations are quite low in value.
The measures taken against Gaza Now, as well as other affiliated entities, signify one of the tactics employed by the U.S. and U.K. in their attempt to dismantle any financial resources for Hamas. Both states intend to limit the flow of money to Hamas from the sources by authorizing individuals and entities who participate in these fundraising efforts, along with their cryptocurrency wallets, which are their attempt to fight against terrorism financing.