Federal prosecutors charged a Gaza-based Hamas figure and American donors after alleging more than $1.7 million reached the terror group under the cover of humanitarian aid.
Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Thursday charging a 45-year-old Gaza man and three alleged co-conspirators in the United States with running a multi-year fundraising operation that claimed to feed and clothe Palestinians while secretly routing money to Hamas.
CBS News reported that prosecutors say the campaigns raised more than $1.7 million between January 2020 and December 2025, including at least $626,000 from donors based in the United States. Three men in Louisiana and Florida were arrested. The lead defendant, Saleem Alzaq, remains in Gaza and has not been taken into custody.
Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the case as a direct strike on terror finance.
"Anyone who finances or assists terrorist organizations responsible for the deaths of American citizens should expect to be prosecuted by the Department of Justice,"
Blanche said, adding that the Justice Department "will continue pursuing terrorists who kill Americans, dismantling terrorist finance networks, and delivering justice for the families of victims."
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said her department’s intelligence unit built the case that exposed the network.
"Our intelligence analysts uncovered this international finance network and built the case that exposed more than $2 million being funneled to Hamas,"
Tisch said. She described Alzaq as "a leader in Hamas' military arm responsible for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks," and said he and the other defendants "allegedly solicited donations under the guise of humanitarian aid and then directed that money to Hamas."
The indictment figure tops $1.7 million. Tisch put the total above $2 million. Both numbers come from officials describing the same alleged pipeline.
Prosecutors say Alzaq has been a Hamas member since at least 2017. They charge him with conspiring to provide material support to Hamas, conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the main U.S. sanctions law used against terror finance, conspiring to commit money laundering, and conspiring to defraud the United States.
The first three counts each carry up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. The fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum of five years.
Two brothers from Covington, Louisiana, Abdel Adhami, 35, and Omar Adhami, 33, were arrested and charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to provide that support, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiring to commit money laundering. Prosecutors say the brothers contributed about $105,000.
Raed Yousef, 56, of Lutz, Florida, was also arrested. His charges include conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to do so; providing funds, goods, and services to a specially designated terrorist; conspiracy to commit money laundering; money laundering; and passport fraud. Prosecutors say he provided nearly $50,000 to the network.
Co-conspirators in France allegedly helped collect and move the money. Their names were not released in the announcement.
The timing of one campaign is hard to miss. On Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas slaughtered civilians in Israel, Alzaq allegedly launched a new fundraising drive that claimed to raise money for Gazans injured that day. That campaign stayed open until about Oct. 12, 2023.
Prosecutors also say Alzaq posted Hamas propaganda on social media, including content celebrating the Oct. 7 attack. The public announcement of the charges came nearly three years after that assault.
The alleged method was straightforward. Campaigns claimed to supply food and winter necessities to Palestinians in Gaza. Donors gave. Money moved through contacts in France and the United States. Prosecutors say the real destination was Hamas.
Investigators used an undercover officer to test the pipeline. In November 2025, the officer posed as a New York-based Hamas supporter and contacted Alzaq on Snapchat. Alzaq allegedly said he had ways to receive money in New York and offered to connect the officer with contacts there.
The next month, Alzaq allegedly told the undercover officer that he worked with people who wanted money to reach "the Green", prosecutors say that was a reference to Hamas. He allegedly said he received money and gave it to "the Green," but that proof would be hard to produce because Hamas members avoided using identification.
He also allegedly said he could move money monthly using coded language: "bread," "bakeries," "buy bread," and "give it to the bakeries."
Earlier Snapchat traffic fits the same pattern. In January 2024, after a U.S.-based Hamas supporter asked about money sent to "the bread people," Alzaq allegedly replied that he had "learned the way" and could deliver "whatever you want."
In October 2024, he allegedly told followers not to write "Free Palestine" or "long live Hamas" on donations to his PayPal accounts, warning that open slogans could get the accounts shut down.
That instruction is the tell. The public pitch was charity. The private rules treated the money as something that had to stay hidden from banks, platforms, and law enforcement.
The Justice Department and the NYPD say they dismantled a cross-border finance network that used American wallets and French intermediaries to feed a designated terrorist organization. Alzaq is charged but still in Gaza. The Adhami brothers and Yousef are in custody facing material-support and money-laundering counts. The indictment covers nearly six years of alleged fundraising dressed up as aid.
U.S. law already bans material support to Hamas. The question after an unsealed indictment is whether courts, banks, and payment platforms treat "humanitarian" branding as a free pass when the alleged destination is a terror army that murdered Americans and Israelis. Prosecutors say this network did not.
Americans who cut checks for winter coats should not discover those dollars armed a group that celebrates mass murder, and the people who allegedly ran that switch deserve the full weight of the law.
