A joint operation by the Shin Bet internal security agency and Israel Police has revealed a terror financing network operated by the Hamas terrorist organization to reward the families of slain and jailed terrorists, including murderers and kidnappers.
According to the Shin Bet, the network is run by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip and is intended to encourage acts of terrorism against Israeli Jews.
After the revelation of the Hamas money pipeline to terrorists’ families, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) authorized the seizing of funds – or property of equivalent value to the funds – transferred by Hamas via the network to Arab residents of Jerusalem.
The total value of the assets seized is over 130,000 shekels ($36,233), including some 100,000 shekels in cash ($27,870) and a private car.
The recipients of the terror funds included the father of Hassan Mahani, one of two terrorists responsible for a pair of stabbing attacks in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem in October 2015. Hassan Mahani was shot and killed during the attack, after two Israelis were seriously wounded.
The mother of Tareq Abu Arfa, who was involved in the kidnapping and murder of IDF soldier Nachshon Wachsman in 1994, also received money through the Hamas funding network.
Wachsman, a 19-yearo-old dual US-Israeli citizen, was kidnapped in October 1994 by a gang of Hamas terrorists after completing an army training course.
On his way home to Jerusalem, Wachsman was abducted and held captive just outside of Jerusalem for six days before his captors murdered him during a rescue attempt by IDF special forces.