Italian police have arrested nine people accused of funding Hamas through charitable associations that investigators say raised at least 7.3 million euros for the Palestinian militant group.
In an operation coordinated by the Anti-Mafia and Counter-Terrorism Directorate of the Genoa Region, police and the Financial Guard executed arrest warrants and seized assets worth more than 8 million euros.
The investigation, which began before the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, uncovered what prosecutors say was a complex network of international financial transfers through three Italian associations based in Genoa and Milan.
Investigators said seven of those arrested were members of Hamas’s overseas operations arm, while two others provided outside support.
Of the nine arrest warrants issued, seven people were executed in Italy, with two suspects believed to be in Türkiye and Gaza, Genoa chief prosecutor Nicola Piacente said.
Who is the suspect? How is the money used?
Mohammad Hannoun, 63, president of the Italian Association of Palestinians and founder of the Association for the Welfare and Solidarity of the Palestinian People (ABSPP), was identified by investigators as the alleged leader of the Italian organization.
Prosecutors said more than 71 percent of donations collected by the ABSPP and related associations went to entities controlled by or linked to Hamas.
The associations under investigation include the ABSPP founded in 1994, a second ABSPP organization founded in 2003, and La Cupola d’Oro, founded in Milan in December 2023.
According to court documents, the suspects evaded banking controls by creating new associations after financial institutions including UniCredit, Credit Agricole and Poste Italiane closed accounts linked to Hannon after being alerted by Israeli and U.S. authorities.
Prosecutors said the funds flowed through foreign intermediaries to associations in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel that Israeli authorities had declared illegal because of their ties to Hamas, or directly to Hamas members, including Osama Alisawi, who served as transportation minister in the de facto Hamas government in Gaza from 2008 to 2014.
Investigators say the money also supports families of people involved in suicide attacks or in prison for terrorism crimes, which prosecutors believe strengthens Hamas’s operational capabilities.
The investigation used phone hacking, financial surveillance and cooperation with authorities in the Netherlands and other European countries.
Prosecutors said intercepted communications showed approval of the terror attack and links between the suspects and senior Hamas figures.
Hannon faces ‘immediate flight risk’
Judge Silvia Carpanini wrote in a 306-page custody order that Hannon posed a “concrete and immediate risk of flight” and cited evidence that he planned to relocate to Turkey. The judge said the intercept showed the plan was in action at the time of the arrest.
Hannon attended a meeting in Turkey in December with Ali Baraka, who investigators say is a senior Hamas official in overseas operations, domestic media reported, citing court documents.
The U.S. Treasury Department designated Hannon and ABSPP as terrorist financiers in 2023. Genoa prosecutors investigated Hannon in the early 2000s, but the case was archived.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni expressed “appreciation and satisfaction” for the operation, while Interior Minister Matteo Piandosi said the assassination “lifted the lid” on the use of humanitarian measures to conceal support for terrorist groups.
Hannon’s lawyer, Fabio Sommovigo, told Italian news agency AGI that the case was based on the Israeli authorities’ explanation of the flow of funds, which were raised peacefully for humanitarian purposes.
