Italian police have arrested nine people accused of financing Hamas through charity associations that investigators said raised at least €7.3 million for the Palestinian militant group.
The Police and the Guardia di Finanza executed arrest warrants and seized more than €8 million in assets in an operation coordinated by the District Directorate of Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism of Genoa.
The investigation, which began before the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack in southern Israel, revealed what prosecutors described as a complex network of international financial transfers through three Italian associations based in Genoa and Milan.
The investigators allege that seven people arrested were members of the foreign operations branch of Hamas, while two others provided external support.
Of the nine arrest warrants issued, seven were executed in Italy, with two suspects believed to be in Turkey and Gaza, said Genoa’s chief prosecutor Nicola Piacente.
Who are the suspects and how was the money used?
Mohammad Hannoun, 63 years old, president of the Association of Palestinians in Italy and founder of the Associazione Benefica di Solidarietà con il Popolo Palestinese (ABSPP), has been identified by investigators as the alleged leader of the Italian cell.
The prosecutors said that more than 71% of the donations collected by the ABSPP and related associations went to entities controlled by or linked to Hamas.
The associations under investigation are ABSPP, founded in 1994, the second ABSPP organization established in 2003 and La Cupola d’Oro, created in Milan in December 2023.
According to court documents, the suspects evaded bank controls by creating new associations after financial institutions including UniCredit, Crédit Agricole and Poste Italiane closed accounts linked to Hannoun following warnings from Israeli and American authorities.
Prosecutors said funds were sent through foreign intermediaries to associations in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel that Israeli authorities have declared illegal because of Hamas connections, or directly to Hamas members, including Osama Alisawi, who served as transport minister in the de facto Hamas government in Gaza from 2008 to 2014.
Investigators said the money also supported families of people involved in suicide attacks or imprisoned for terrorism offences, which prosecutors argued strengthened Hamas’ operational capacity.
The investigation used phone taps, financial monitoring and cooperation with authorities in the Netherlands and other European countries.
Prosecutors said intercepted communications showed expressions of approval for terrorist attacks and connections between suspects and senior Hamas figures.
Hannoun ‘immediate flight risk’
Judge Silvia Carpanini wrote in a 306-page custody order that Hannoun presented a “concrete and immediate flight risk,” and cited evidence that he planned to relocate to Turkey. Intercepts showed that the plan was being carried out at the time of the arrests, said the judge.
Hannoun attended a meeting in Turkey in December with Ali Baraka, described by investigators as a senior Hamas foreign operations official, according to domestic media reports citing court documents.
The US Treasury designated Hannoun and the ABSPP as terrorist financiers in 2023. Genoa prosecutors previously investigated Hannoun in the early 2000s, but that case was shelved.
The Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed “appreciation and satisfaction” for the operation, while the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi said that the schedule “removed the veil” on activities that used humanitarian initiatives to hide support for terrorist organizations.
Hannoun’s lawyer Fabio Sommovigo told the Italian news agency AGI that the case was based on the Israeli authorities’ interpretation of the money movements and that the funds were collected peacefully for humanitarian purposes.