It starts with a coin dropped into a collection box in a bustling piazza in Genoa, or perhaps a digital transfer from a well-meaning donor in Amsterdam who believes they are buying milk for orphans. It ends in a damp tunnel in Khan Yunis, handing a wad of cash to the family of a suicide bomber.
For decades, the West has deluded itself with the dangerous, comforting fiction that we can distinguish between the “political” and “military” wings of Islamist movements, and that “humanitarian aid” sent to Gaza somehow bypasses Hamas’s iron grip. We have convinced ourselves that if we just write the check to the right NGO, our money will feed the hungry rather than the war machine.
On December 27, Italian anti-mafia prosecutors arrested nine individuals, centering on an architectural office in Genoa run by Mohammad Hannoun, the president of the “Charitable Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” (ABSPP). He has long been a fixture of the pro-Palestinian scene in Europe. He is a man who wears suits, meets politicians, and speaks the language of human rights. But according to investigators, he is also the architect of a massive terror-financing ring that funneled millions of euros directly into the hands of Hamas warlords.
‘Triangulation,’ the architecture of deceit
The brilliance of the Islamist funding machine lies in its ability to exploit the open borders and open banking systems of the free world. The Italian investigation revealed a laundering method prosecutors call “triangulation.”
The scheme works by exploiting the gaps between European jurisdictions. If Hannoun were to wire €500,000 directly from a Genoa charity account to a known Hamas entity in Gaza, red flags would fly instantly in the global banking system. The transaction would be blocked and the accounts frozen.
Instead, the network played a shell game. Funds collected in Italy were not sent south to Gaza; they were sent laterally across Europe. The money would hop from the ABSPP in Italy to partner organizations in the Netherlands, France, or the UK. To a compliance officer at a bank, these looked like routine intra-NGO transfers between European non-profits – boring, legitimate, and safe.
Once the money was “washed” through this European spin cycle, obscuring its original source, it was funneled into Gaza. By the time the cash resurfaced, it was clean enough to enter the local economy, often handed over in cash or through hawala [informal] networks to organizations Israel has long outlawed, such as the Al-Salah Society.
From Genoa to the warlord
The recipients of this “charity” were not the starving children featured on the fundraising flyers. Italian investigators identified specific end-users such as Osama Alisawi, a former transport minister in the Hamas government in Gaza.
The investigation revealed that money was specifically earmarked to support the families of “martyrs” – suicide bombers and terrorists who died trying to kill Israelis. In the twisted economy of Jihad, this is a pension plan for murder, incentivizing young men to die by guaranteeing their families will be cared for by European donors.
The numbers are staggering. Italian authorities estimate that this specific cell moved over €7 million. But the most damning statistic is the “leakage” rate. Prosecutors believe that 71% of the funds raised for “humanitarian causes” by this network were diverted directly to Hamas’s military and strategic needs.
The myth of the ‘civilian’ front
This case exposes the core lie of modern Islamism in the West: the separation of dawa (social welfare to attract people to Islam) from Jihad (“holy war”). In the Islamist worldview, they are one and the same. The soup kitchen recruits the fighter; the charity funds the tunnel; the “humanitarian” NGO provides the diplomatic cover.
The US Treasury Department is acutely aware of this network. In fact, the United States sanctioned Hannoun and his Association of Solidarity just months ago, identifying them as key nodes in Hamas’s global financing structure.
The Union of Good, the umbrella organization to which these charities belong, has been designated by the US for years. Yet, the ideology that powers this machine – the ideology that says murdering Jews is a form of “resistance” worthy of charitable support – is alive and well on American college campuses and in American nonprofits. We see the same rhetoric, the same flags, and likely, the same money flows, hiding behind the shield of civil liberties to fund the destruction of the Jewish state.
The arrest of Hannoun is a victory, but it is a drop in the ocean.
The writer, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx