The U.S. Treasury sanctioned a Hamas financing network on October 2, alleging it moved more than $2 million to the group through sham charities, money services businesses and cryptocurrency wallets. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. sanctions authority, designated Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a battalion deputy in Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades, along with France-based fundraisers Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid and the charities they controlled, Association Baraka and Ensemble C Mieux. Treasury said the network collected the funds from 2020 through 2026, including roughly $1.5 million after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The case forms part of a wider U.S. crackdown on cryptocurrency-linked sanctions evasion. The designations, issued under Executive Order 13224 as amended, freeze any U.S. assets held by the listed people and entities, while foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for them face potential secondary sanctions.