“The majority of the money goes to… muqawama“, an Arabic word for resistance. “We sacrifice ourselves with money and time, but they sacrifice with blood.” Suspects speak in conversations intercepted by the Italian police. They talk about fundraising campaigns in Italy to help Palestinians. According to judicial investigators, the conversations also provide evidence that those involved knew well that the money raised would end up with Hamas, the Palestinian militant movement that is on the terrorist list in both the EU and the US.
Of the seven suspects arrested in Italy on Saturday, Mohammad Hannoun is the best known. Hannoun (1962), an architect who had lived in Genoa in northern Italy for years, was the leader of several Palestinian organizations in Italy. That role brought him into direct contact with politicians. For example, he was a guest in the Italian parliament. According to the Italian public prosecutor’s office, Hannoun is a representative of Hamas.
Police say that at least 71 percent of the expenditure of the associations that can be linked to the suspects was intended for Hamas or people associated with the movement, the newspaper writes La Repubblicawhich refers to the judicial investigation. The money is said to have gone to the military branch of Hamas, and to relatives of the dead, injured and prisoners.
Mohammad Hannoun and the other arrested people are suspected of having transferred around 7 million euros to Hamas. Hannoun was already on the blacklist of the US Treasury Department. He was no longer allowed to enter Milan after a statement of support for Amsterdam youth, following the violent confrontations with hooligans from the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Italian police arrested him and six other suspects on Saturday. Two others are still wanted. Assets worth more than 8 million euros have been seized.
Phone memory cleared
The investigation started two years ago after suspicious financial transactions were noticed. Italian judicial investigators, who have decades of experience in sifting through financial flows in the context of anti-mafia and anti-terror investigations, went to work and listened in on countless conversations. The cross-border operation was baptized ‘Operation Domino’. Collaboration took place with the Netherlands, among others. Eurojust, the EU agency in The Hague for judicial cooperation in criminal matters, helped the Italians coordinate the information exchange.
The investigators had strong suspicions that Hannoun and the others knew they were on the police radar. Hannoun is said to have had a concrete plan to flee to Turkey, where Hamas is not on the terror list. The other suspects, the newspaper reports Corriere della Serahad recently wiped the memory of their cell phones.
In the past, Hannoun said he was with Hamas sympathizedwhile denying being part of the organization. The investigators found traces that he was a close acquaintance of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas chief who was assassinated by Israel in Tehran in 2024. The two were photographed together.
In recent months, large solidarity demonstrations and strikes have taken place in Italy in support of beleaguered Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The fact that well-intentioned Italians gave money that ultimately did not end up with Palestinian citizens in need, but was possibly channeled to Hamas, is shocking.
‘Operation Domino’ is leading to a polemic in Italy between right-wing parties and the left-wing opposition, which is now being accused of having supported Hannoun and pro-Palestinian voices in Italy far too prominently. Left-wing politicians warn that this judicial investigation against individuals should not lead to the suspicion of millions of pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did not join the discussion, she only expressed her “appreciation and satisfaction” with “the complex and interested operation.”
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Italy arrests seven people ‘for channeling millions to Hamas’
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