It’s expensive and difficult to run a worldwide terrorist organization from Gaza, Judea and Samaria, while keeping the domestic fires burning at home.
Alert Israeli security teams are making it even harder. A money laundering scheme by the Hamas terrorist organization was foiled this week by Israel’s Security Agency, the Shin Bet.
Security personnel arrested a Gaza woman accused of bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars into Judea and Samaria for Hamas.
She was charged in Southern District Court with providing services to an outlawed organization, contact with a hostile foreign agent and unlawful use of terrorist assets.
Here’s how 42-year-old Sana’a Hafi, a resident of Nuseirat in central Gaza, arrested at the Erez crossing on May 26, managed to get her money deliveries to Hamas in Judea and Samaria.
Hafi received the funds from the Hamas “Al-Nur” organization which sends money to terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons, and the families of wounded and dead “martyrs” who die attacking Israelis and Jews, according to a statement from the Shin Bet.
Under questioning, the woman revealed that she sent a large part of the money to her brother, Hassan Abu Kayuk, currently incarcerated in Israel.
Kayuk divided up that money and sent some to Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria, using various currency exchange stores to launder and distribute the funds. In this way, he was able to evade the ban on electronic bank transfers by Hamas.
Some was also used to buy a vehicle and a luxury apartment.