The US Treasury announced sanctions on October 2, 2026, against a network it says funnelled more than 2 million dollars to Hamas's armed branch, partly through donations converted into cryptocurrency. The case involves two French associations, their founders, and a Gaza-based operative identified by Washington as a deputy battalion commander in the al-Qassam Brigades.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named Saleem al-Zaq, 45, as the recipient of hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto. Washington describes him as both a deputy battalion commander in al-Qassam and a photographer for its media office. He has been indicted in the United States but remains in Gaza.
OFAC sanctioned al-Zaq alongside Faouzi Barika, Amel Oualid, and the two associations they are tied to: Association Baraka, founded in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, in the Gironde, since October 2023, and Ensemble C Mieux, founded in Saint-Étienne in July 2024 by Oualid. Barika is alleged to have co-founded Baraka with al-Zaq. The sanctions freeze any US assets held by those named and bar American companies from dealing with them.
OFAC estimates the network collected more than 2 million dollars between 2020 and 2026, with 1.5 million dollars raised after the October 7, 2023 attack. The US Department of Justice, addressing what it describes as a related but not identically scoped set of transactions, cites a figure of 1.7 million dollars.
Arrests on both sides of the Atlantic
France's domestic intelligence service, the DGSI, arrested three people in connection with the case: Faouzi Barika, Amel Oualid, and Nordine Barika.
In the United States, prosecutors have charged brothers Omar and Abdel Adhami, of Covington, Louisiana, with material support to Hamas, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. OFAC alleges Abdel Adhami paid approximately 94,000 dollars into the network and Omar Adhami 11,000 dollars.
Also charged is Raed Yousef, 56, a resident of Lutz, Florida, who faces counts of passport fraud and making payments to a sanctioned individual. He is alleged to have paid nearly 50,000 dollars into the scheme.
Crypto seizures and blockchain tracing
The case follows an earlier seizure by US justice authorities in March 2025, when approximately 200,000 dollars in USDT believed destined for Hamas was intercepted.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis published findings on X linking a deposit address used by al-Zaq to wallets previously seized by Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) as part of a broader campaign against Hamas-linked crypto addresses that has targeted 84 such addresses since July 2021.
The individuals arrested in France have not been convicted of any offence, and the OFAC sanctions are an administrative measure rather than a judicial finding of guilt. The case nonetheless marks one of the more detailed public accounts to date of how cryptocurrency donations routed through European associations are alleged to have reached a sanctioned armed group.
