NY Times: Israel uncovered vast Hamas financial network in 2018, took no action
Report says Jerusalem, Washington were presented with evidence of Hamas assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars but chose not to stem the flow
Israeli intelligence obtained comprehensive details on vast Hamas financial operations in 2018 but did nothing to shut them down and stem the flow of funds to the terror group, according to a Saturday report.
These same funds were likely key to Hamas’s preparations for the deadly October 7 attacks, The New York Times reported, citing Israeli and American officials.
The report detailed documents found on the computer of a senior Hamas official that listed assets around the world worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The papers pointed to Sudanese companies owned by Hamas that dealt in mining, chicken farming and road construction, two skyscrapers owned by the group in the United Arab Emirates and other property-related business ventures in Algeria and Turkey.
Despite having access to the documents, and a potential path toward cutting off Hamas funds, nothing was done. Both Israel and the US operated under the assumption that Hamas was more interested in ruling the Strip than in conflict with Israel, and focused instead on implementing sanctions against Iran.
“Everyone is talking about failures of intelligence on October 7, but no one is talking about the failure to stop the money,” Udi Levy, formerly head of Mossad’s economic warfare department, told The New York Times. “It’s the money — the money — that allowed this.”
Levy was part of a team probing terror finances called Task Force Harpoon, which tracked Hamas’s money network over a number of years. By 2015 they had found what they termed Hamas’s “secret investment portfolio,” the report said.
At one point, the funds totaled some $500 million.
Levy said he personally briefed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Hamas’s finances in 2015.
“I can tell you for sure that I talked to him about this,” Levy said. “But he didn’t care that much about it.”
Shortly after, then-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen shut down Task Force Harpoon as part of an agency reorganization, Levy said.
Intelligence agents continued to follow the money, but without the same support structure that had existed under the task force.
In 2018, Israel managed to gain access to the ledgers, created by a bookkeeper named Mahmoud Ghazal, which drew the clearest picture yet of the breadth of Hamas financial interests.
“It was a big breakthrough,” one official said. “Hamas could hide behind frontmen and shareholders, but the money always talks.”
At the same time, Saudi Arabia arrested Ghazal, who was residing in the country, after corporate records unveiled his and others’ involvement in 18 companies marked in the documents.
Following these discoveries, the New York Times said the Israeli investigative team shared their findings with US counterparts in the hopes that it would lead to financial sanctions.
However, neither Israel nor the US pursued this option, as senior officials in Israel were pressing the US to place sanctions on Iran.
That same year, 2018, Netanyahu decided to allow millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip via Qatar, believing that it would keep Hamas quiet and discourage them from war.
The report also noted that he is widely reported to have commented privately that he viewed strengthening Hamas as beneficial, as this kept Gaza and the West Bank divided and kept pressure off him to pursue diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
It wasn’t until May 2022 that the US Treasury Department announced financial sanctions against the expansive Hamas finance network.
“Hamas has generated vast sums of revenue through its secret investment portfolio while destabilizing Gaza, which is facing harsh living and economic conditions,” Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes Elizabeth Rosenberg said at the time.
The list of sanctioned individuals included Ahmed Sharif Abdallah Odeh, a Jordanian national who headed Hamas’s international investment portfolio until 2017 and remained involved even after stepping down from the post.
He was replaced by Usama Ali, who in 2019 was appointed to Hamas’s Shura Council — a quasi-legislative branch — and he later served on Hamas’s Executive Committee, maintaining direct contact with Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, the bureau’s deputy head Saleh al-Arouri and others.
Also designated was Hisham Younis Yahia Qafisheh, a Turkish-based Jordanian national who served as Ali’s deputy and was involved in transferring funds on behalf of various companies linked to Hamas’s investment portfolio.
All of those sanctioned by the US in 2022 had been named in the ledgers provided to the US by the Israeli intelligence agents years earlier.
Speaking to the New York Times, Tamir Pardo, who served as the head of Mossad in 2011-2016, said he didn’t know what happened after he stepped down, at which point Cohen dissolved Task Force Harpoon.
“I believe that if someone would have chased the money and stopped it,” he said, “we wouldn’t be seeing the results of what we see today.”
The New York Times noted that Netanyahu had declined to respond to the report’s allegations.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
