2/28/2022 11:00 AM

The third time within a year: The Defense Minister Gantz signed a seizure order of cryptocurrency intended to assist Hamas.

The third time within a year: The Defense Minister Gantz signed a seizure order of cryptocurrency intended to assist Hamas.

Defense Minister Gantz: "Acting in every conceivable way to cut off the economic oxygen pipe of Terror."

Defense Minister Beni Gantz signed a seizure order for cryptocurrency in sums of dozens of thousands of Shekels from 12 digital accounts, including about 30 digital wallets belonging to businesses that assisted the Al'matchadun currency exchange company belonging to the Shamlach family declared by the Defense Minister as a terror organization. The Shamlach family directly owned part of the seized cryptocurrency.

The Shamlach family, through the currency exchange companies it owns, assists the Hamas terror organization, particularly its military arm, by transferring funds in scopes of dozens of million dollars annually. On this background, the companies were declared as terror organizations by order of the Defense Minister.

The cryptocurrency was confiscated in a joint operation of the national cyber unit of Lahav 433, the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing in Israel (NBCTF), and the Intelligence Division in the IDF.

As a result of these steps, business factors and clients who worked with the currency exchange offices of the Shamlach Family were financially and economically damaged.

*Defense Minister Gantz said: "We continue and expand our tools to cope with the terror and the companies supplying it with the economic oxygen pipe. I wish to congratulate all the organizations for the intelligence, operational, and legal cooperation – we shall continue to work in integration to fight terror in any way and all means."

Ministry of Defense Press

ASO - 10/22