WEALTHY CHILDREN AND RELATIVES OF HAMAS LEADERS LIVE LARGE ABROAD, EXPOSING THEIR BANKS TO TERRORIST FINANCING CHARGES

 

Don't look for the sons, male nephews and extended families of the most senior Hamas leaders to be fighting the IDF on the battlefield in Gaza in 2024; they are mostly living the high life in Qatar, Turkey, UAE, Malaysia and even the United States, protected by bodyguards hired by their billionaire fathers, who also live abroad in opulence while the war rages. Having left Gaza during the last two or three years, as if they had inside knowledge of what was to come in 2023, the Hamas children and relatives feast upon the assets received by Hamas from international aid, obscenely high taxes in Gaza, and lucrative monopolies in certain industries and businesses within the territory, all of which has made their fathers billionaires several times over. Photographs of them, in their fine clothes, at five-star hotels, and driving expensive sports cars, have recently appeared in online articles, are not going to endear their Hamas executive fathers to Gaza's citizens.

Now, however, with Israel's quest to destroy Hamas' power to engage in terrorist acts, and even to exist, the party may be coming to an end. Israel has bluntly stated that it intends to liquidate Hamas' amoral leadership, in the aftermath of its terrorist rampage inside the country's agricultural region, including those leaders who enjoy safe haven in other countries in the Middle East. To think that this activity will spare Hamas leadership's individual financial holdings in the process fails to understand Israeli resolve, which has been compared to the targeted assassinations of Palestinian terrorists who were part of the Munich Olympics kidnapping and massacre. Hamas leaders have been targeted for the terrorism they ordered.

Given that much of Hamas' real estate holdings and liquid assets are hold, by choice in the names of relatives who front for their sanctioned fathers, especially the grown children of leaders' sisters, who have family names not connected to any sanctions target, those assets may be subject to seizure and forfeiture, and the relatives could find themselves charged with offenses that they cannot walk away from. The banks and entities that hold or manage these assets could also end up as casualties of the Global War on Terrorism, for their obvious KYC failures. 

This might be a good time for compliance officers in the countries listed above to double-check their client lists for wealthy young Palestinian bank clients with large bank accounts and major assets, to rule them as a Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) who could possibly be related to, or linked to, senior leaders of Hamas, many of whom happen to be the subject of sanctions.