The Israeli
government through a multi-agency collaboration has seized millions of dollars
in cryptocurrency belonging to accounts allegedly linked to groups in Iran and
Lebanon. According to the Associated Press, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
explained that the accounts
were used to fund the Quds Force, the special unit of Iran’s paramilitary Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for extraterritorial operations, and
Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and the militant group supported by Iran.
Gallant alleged that Hezbollah and the Quds Force, two
organizations that are considered to be a major threat to the Israeli government, are
deploying cryptocurrency to finance their activities. The Quds
Force has long been accused of supporting and funding various militant groups,
including Hezbollah.
The two groups have also
been designated as
terrorist organizations by the United States, with
the European
Union considering only Hezbollah’s
military wing as a terrorist organization. Gallant
said that the Western Asian country has now “effectively
cut off” the flow of funds for terrorism activities through those accounts. He
noted that the operation is the first crypto-related operation by Israel targeting both
groups.
“Since the beginning of the year, Hezbollah, Quds Force and Syrian elements have used digital currencies in order to obtain in this manner funds from third parties, mainly money changers with whom they perpetrated unlawful transactions, which were used by the terrorist organizations for their ongoing activities,” Gallant explained in a statement released on Wednesday by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel.
The new operation is Israel’s latest move in the campaign against terrorism financing through the use of cryptocurrencies. Last month, Israeli authorities seized 189 Binance accounts allegedly linked to Palestinian and Islamist terror groups since
2021.
In February
last year, the
country confiscated 30 crypto
wallets and 12
accounts it deemed connected to terrorism financing. The wallets were allegedly linked to
Al Mutahadun, a currency exchange company based in the Gaza Strip. The
exchange has been previously accused of providing financial support to Hamas, a militant group that controls…
