The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, described as a Gaza-based battalion deputy in Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades military wing, along with France-based fundraisers Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid and the two organizations they ran, Association Baraka and Ensemble C Mieux. The designations were made under Executive Order 13224, the core U.S. counterterrorism sanctions authority. Treasury said the three built a multi-year financing architecture that collected more than $2 million for Hamas from 2020 through 2026, with roughly $1.5 million raised after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
According to Treasury, the two French charities solicited public donations presented as humanitarian aid for Gaza, then routed the money to al-Zaq, who promoted their fundraising accounts on social media. Barika and Oualid sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to al-Zaq, who used money services businesses and crypto wallets to move funds onward to the Al-Qassam Brigades. Treasury said the action aligns with a broad multi-jurisdictional operation led by the FBI against Hamas fundraising ventures, including ones inside the United States. All U.S.-held property of the designated persons is blocked.
The designations add France-based charitable fronts to the map of Hamas finance alongside the better-known Gulf and crypto channels. The FBI-led framing suggests further actions against U.S.-based fundraising ventures may follow.