Israeli Authorities Work with Binance to Freeze Hamas’ Cryptocurrency Accounts

In today’s modern wars, cyber attacks are just as common as conventional ones. Hamas, a Palestinian militant organisation, was discovered to have cryptocurrency accounts in Israel, even as it launched fresh attacks against the Jewish state.

Hamas Cryptocurrency Accounts Suspended

Calcalist, a local news outlet in Israel, said on Tuesday that the Israeli police had issued a statement saying that all cryptocurrency accounts associated with the Palestinian militant group Hamas had been frozen.

In response to Hamas’s multipronged attack on Israel over the weekend, Israel’s defence minister has ordered a complete closure of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

Those accounts allegedly were targeted by the Lahav 433 cyber unit of the Israel Police in coordination with the Israeli Defence Ministry, the Israeli intelligence agencies, and the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. Any funds recovered would be transferred to the Israeli Treasury, it added.

Actions Taken By Binance

An example of a comprehensive approach to tackling cybercrime is the partnership between the Israeli Ministry of Defence, intelligence agencies, the Lahav 433 cyber unit of the Israel Police, and the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. By zeroing down on these accounts, they want to stymie criminal behaviour while also bolstering Israel’s financial stability by depositing the funds in the country’s national treasury.

In March, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was sued by the U.S. Commodities Futures and Trading Commision (CFTC) over allegations that business officers knew about “HAMAS transactions” on the platform.

Since 2020, Israeli authorities have frozen around 190 Binance accounts suspected of having links to terrorist groups. The Israeli government and Binance previously worked together to disrupt “a terrorism financing operation linked to Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah,” as the firm put it in a statement released in June.

Over the past few days, a dedicated team at Binance has been working around the clock to support ongoing efforts to halt the financing of terrorists. A representative for Binance recently emailed Coindesk to reassure the public that the exchange is doing proactive work to ensure the security of the blockchain ecosystem and the greater global community.

Binance Proving It

Israeli police froze these 190 Binance accounts as part of a larger operation targeting the funding of terrorism. Binance and the Israeli authorities are working together to crack down on unlawful activities and protect Binance’s platform.

Binance is clearly cooperating with law enforcement and regulatory entities to identify and prevent any criminal operations on its platform, despite its continuing struggle with the U.S. regulatory body. They stressed the need for the bitcoin market as a whole to remain stable and reliable.