Hamas' secret billion dollar fund to survive war with Israel

this right here is how Hamas funds its conflict with Israel and why the group may be impossible to destroy it's 7 months since Hamas attacked Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu sent troops over the Border in response the Israeli Army controls most of Gaza now and says it's wiped out almost 34s of hamas's Fighters Israel massively outguns outnumbers and outspends its enemy but Hamas has a secret weapon I've gone through government documents intelligence reports and spoken to financial crime experts to understand Hamas and its shadow Network I'm going to show you how they've built a secret War chest using a web of shell companies and financial middlemen and how they've hidden it all in claim sight just out of the reach of their enemies so while Israel says its key mission is to destroy Dy destroy Hamas it secret investment mean Hamas could survive long after Israel's claimed a land victory in Gaza but before we get to that let's briefly look at who Hamas Are The Movement which is now designated a terrorist group by most Western countries officially formed in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood since its Beginnings it vowed to destroy Israel and establish an Islamic Palestinian state in in its place they are just one of several groups vying for Powers across the Palestinian territories but in 2006 they won elections in Gaza defeating their Palestinian Rivals Hamas has been running the government responsible for the people of the region the roads the schools the police and the health services and like any government it has a budget it's difficult to give the exact numbers but it's report reported they raise around $360 million a year from taxes on top of that countries like katar send Hamas hundreds of millions of dollars in Aid Iran is also thought to give a100 million a year alongside help with training and weapons but while Israel relies on massive financial and Military Support from its allies Hamas has taken a different approach it's known as the Hamas investment office a network of or legitimate businesses around the world making very real profits these Investments link tower blocks in Turkey to construction companies in Sudan to skyscrapers in the UAE it could be worth a billion dollars to understand why let's first look at how it works this is hasham kfish he's a Jordanian businessman based in Turkey with a key role in several companies across North Africa and the Middle East let's just take one of those firms Trend gyo it's a real estate developer based in Turkey with a market value of more than $20 million it's behind dozens of projects including houses hotels and University buildings one of its developments is this a series of flats in the city of Bersa near Istanbul on the surface these are regular Flats built and maintained entirely legitimately but hundreds of ordinary people call home now let's go back to Hisham cfisher once one of Tren G's top directors us sanctions documents say he's a Hamas operative and according to these documents the companies he's involved with including Tren gyo have effectively been controlled by Hamas treny yo is appealing against the sanctions they deny accusations of any links to Hamas and say Mr hafish has resigned we tried to reach Mr kfish for comment but did not receive a response after Trend gyo was sanctioned the Turkish authorities launched their own probe concluding there was no abuse of national laws or International obligations according to the US and Israeli intelligence Mr cfisher and Tren uio or an example of the kind of setup Hamas has repeated all over the world dozens of businessmen embedded in companies with links all the way back to Hamas and some of the prophets these people and their compan companies make a funnel back to Gaza but how does the money make it there cryptocurrencies unsurprisingly play a big role because they're very difficult for authorities to track they also use oldfashioned cash brought into Gaza through tunnels carried by hand Dollar by dollar and regular Banks reportedly play a role in this us intelligence Services claim at least three Turkish banks have dealt with Hamas link companies and individuals but it's not just turkey according to one of the world's leading experts on financial crime institutions much closer to home almost certainly involved as well there would be a brave person who suggested that London is not in some way tarnished by Finance related to Hamas where would you hide your your money well you'd hide it in the biggest Financial Center in the world Barkley's Bank headquartered right here in England has already been forced to take action about one of its accounts linked to Hamas in a statement to Channel 4 News the bank said it doesn't tolerate financing terrorist activities what we can be confident in is that we are doing everything possible to restrict and disrupt those money flows but to say that London is clean of Hamas financing of Russia sanctions evasion or anything else uh is for the birds but why can't Western governments do more to crack down on this kind of money because even though they've sanctioned specific individuals linked to Hamas the whole point of this shadowy network is that it uses shell companies and middleman and financial guns for hire in countries that don't ask too many questions or are sympathetic to the government in Gaza so the big risk facing financial institutions is that in this murky world of middlemen and front companies it's hard to follow exactly where the money is going and without the right intelligence banks that want to stop these transactions struggle to see when the cash is traveling back to the Hamas War chest while War rages in Gaza it's in this hidden network where much of hamas's power lies the apartment blocks in Turkey the construction firms in Sudan the skyscrapers in Dubai Hamas has been building this income stream for years is designed to withstand even a military defeat so despite what's happening on the ground in Gaza this network may live on giving Hamas a potentially endless source of funds for its fight against Israel

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 110,347

Keywords: Channel 4 News, Hamas, hamas vs israel, hamas israel war, hamas israel war today, hamas israel news, hamas leader, hamas news, hamas war, hamas combat footage, hamas funding, hamas money, hamas gaza, israel, israel vs hamas today, israel iran war, israel iran, israel war, israel vs iran, israel palestine, israel vs palestine, israel gaza war, israel gaza hamas, israel hamas money, israel gaza war latest, israel gaza war news, netanyahu, netanyahu hamas, netanyahu gaza

Id: p4JLT4k1HpE

Length: 7min 13sec (433 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024