On October 7, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated three individuals based in Europe and one sham charity that are prominent international financial supporters of Hamas, as well as one Hamas-controlled financial institution in Gaza.
In addition, OFAC also designated a Turkey-based Yemeni citizen indicated as a longstanding Hamas supporter, and nine of his businesses. These actors play critical roles in external fundraising for Hamas, often under the guise of charitable work, that finance the group’s terrorist activities.
The three Europe-based individuals are Majed al-Zeer, a senior Hamas representative in Germany, who has played a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising.
Adel Doughman, who is a prominent Hamas representative in Europe, oversees the organization’s activity in Austria and is closely associated with senior Hamas leaders. Doughman has held senior positions in institutions affiliated with Hamas, which transfer money to the organization.
The third one is Mohammad Hannoun, indicated by OFAC as “an Italy-based Hamas member who established the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (ABSPP), a sham charity in Italy which ostensibly raises funds for humanitarian purposes, but in reality, helps bankroll Hamas’ military wing.
As an executive at ABSPP, Hannoun has sent money to Hamas-controlled organizations since at least 2018. He has solicited funding for Hamas with senior Hamas officials and sent at least $4 million to Hamas over a 10-year period.”
On October 13, the European Leadership Network (Elnet) published a report on Hamas in Europe, dedicating the Italian part to Hannoun and associates, exposing links between him and other Hamas members active in different European countries, including those sanctioned by OFAC.
Hamas’ man and money collector in Italy
In December of 2021, after several reports to the Anti-Money Laundering Office, Unicredit Bank suspended operations on the accounts of the ABSPP due to a series of anomalies: from failure to register in the Italian Revenue Agency register to the massive movement of cash, in some cases to subjects registered on the blacklists of European databases.
However, according to Italian media, the indictment that was launched by the judicial office did not lead anywhere due to the lack of verifiable elements in the Palestinian territories.
In July 2023, the Israeli Defense Ministry asked the Italian police to seize Hannoun’s money. From the investigation conducted by the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, it emerged that €500,000 was available to the architect who in the past was accused by Israel, without any criminal repercussions, of hiding financial support to Palestinian suicide bombers.
Over the years, Italian intelligence services received reports of strange financial movements of Mohammad Hannoun’s associations. As explained in an interview for Panorama on October 22 by journalist Massimiliano Coccia, who has been monitoring Hannoun since late 2021, the inaction of Italian authorities on Hannoun is evident.
“The Italian governments never took action on Hannoun,” and “everything was based on open-source tracking, the inspections began after I published the articles, but in a normal country this would not be the normal procedure."
In December 2023, Poste Italiane also unilaterally closed its relationship. Immediately after, PayPal and other operators including Visa, Mastercard and American Express blocked transactions registered to Hannoun and his association.
In March of 2024, Hannoun tried to bypass the closure of his accounts first by asking donors to bring cash directly to his offices, and then through the help of Modestino Preziosi, an Italian close protection officer with links to a Somali university, owner of a private security company and a former marathon runner.
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As indicated on Facebook, Preziosi provided an IBAN opened under his own name, and he was presented as “a testimonial and guarantor” for a new initiative launched by Hannoun and named “Humanitarian Peace Convoy for Gaza," to bring an aid convoy from Egypt into Gaza.
The project was also publicly sponsored by Alfredo Maiolese, president of the European Muslim League, also from Genoa like Hannoun and a convert to Islam.
Around the same time, a new charity called Cupola d’Oro (Golden Dome) emerged and was indicated by Hannoun as the recipient of any donations. Cupola d’Oro and ABSPP (share the same Genoa addresses and telephone numbers, as emerges on the InfoPal page, the media arm of Hannoun’s associations. Cupola d’Oro opened the bank account at Poste Italiane, Italy’s postal service which also offers a banking service.
Hannoun’s Italian network
ABSPP is only one of the associations active on Italian soil and managed by Hannoun, together with Associazione Palestinesi in Italia-API (Association of Palestinians in Italy), established in 2008 as a representative organization of the Palestinians in Italy, and European for Al-Quds (EQ), a Rome-based organization that gathers various groups in Europe supporting the Palestinian cause.
As indicated in the Elnet report, API appears to be directly linked to ABSPP since the page transparency section of API’s Facebook page shows that it used to be called “ABSPP Onlus and Abspp”. Moreover, their Genoa addresses are one next to the other (via Bolzaneto 19/1 & 19/2).
Hannoun’s right-hand man, Suleiman Hijazi, has been holding the positions of vice-president of ABSPP, and a representative of the EQ and API. In December 2019, Hijazi was exposed by the Italian media for his consistent pro-Hamas content on Facebook.
Another Genoa-based group, which is considered Hannoun’s media branch, is InfoPal which shares an address on the same street as ABSPP and API. One of its editors, Karim al-Sadi, is also indicated as a coordinator of Giovani Palestinesi (API’s youth movement).
The latter, which is also supported by the Italian far left, was responsible for heavy clashes with the police during a non-authorized demonstration to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre in Rome.
Hannoun’s pro-terror statements
Hannoun, who has been photographed next to Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal, made pro-Hamas statements on plenty of occasions.
On October 10, 2023, just three days after the October 7 pogrom, he claimed that the attack perpetrated by Hamas was in “self-defense”. Such claims were made in an interview with the Italian State TV Rai3 during a demonstration in central Milan.
On January 4, 2024, Hannoun used his Facebook account to glorify Yahya Ayyash, Hamas’ notorious bombmaker, and Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas leader in Lebanon who was killed by Israel in Beirut in a drone strike on January 2, 2024.
On March 30, 2024, during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside Milan’s Central Station, Hannoun concluded his speech inciting to turn all Israeli embassies into centers for Palestinian resistance. In July 2024, Hannoun praised Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades' former commander, Emad Akel, and Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital.
Hannoun’s statements are no surprise since he praised Hamas terrorists on many occasions even before October 7. For instance, in December 2020 he referred to Hamas’ founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, as a “martyr." In 2017, he once again praised Yahya Ayyash. In 2016, he praised the First Intifada violence.
What’s next?
The sanctions applied by OPAC against Hannoun and other key Hamas actors in Europe and based on specific evidence, require European authorities to take immediate action in order to cut all financial support to the organization.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization in the EU, just like ISIS and al-Qaeda, it is therefore inexplicable why Hamas has so far been able to freely operate on European soil and in Italy since this is the context under current analysis.
Giovanni GiacaloneOn October 8, 2024, prosecutor Nicola Piacente said that the Genoa Public Prosecutor’s Office could open a new investigation into Mohammad Hannoun if useful documentation for further investigation were to arrive from the United States.
Although any kind of support coming from U.S. institutions is welcome and much appreciated, it is not clear why Italy needs material from the United States to re-open the investigation if Hannoun has been operating on Italian and European soil.
- Giovanni Giacalone is a member of the Israel Defense and Security Forum's (IDSF) Research Department.