A depleted Hamas is so low in cash that he can't pay his fighters

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Summer said, Benoit Faucon, The Wall Street Journal 5 min Read April 17, 2025, 08:30 AM ist Hamas, who controls the civilian government of Gaza, received monthly cash transfers of $ 15 million from Qatar before the war. Summary Israel’s targeted murders and cuts have disrupted the militant group’s sources of cash and the ability to distribute it in Gaza. Hamas fighters waited in February in February for the handing over of four Israeli hostages’ bodies in Gaza. Hamas faces a new problem in Gaza: Come with the cash he needs to pay his rank and file. Last month, Israel cut off supplies of humanitarian goods at the enclave, some of which seized and sold Hamas to raise money, according to Arabic, Israeli and Western officials. The renewed offensive targeted and killed Hamas officials who played important roles to spread cash to cadres and to welcome others, the Arab intelligence officials said. Over the past few weeks, the Israeli army has said that it has killed a money changer that called the key to the financing of terrorist financing for Hamas, as well as a number of top political officials. The result for Hamas was a weakening pressure. The salary payments to many employees of the Gaza government have stopped, while many senior Hamas fighters and political staff only began receiving about half of their wages from the Ramadan Holy period from the Ramadan last month, intelligence officials said. Rank-and-file Hamas Fighters’ payment was about $ 200 to $ 300 a month on average, they said. The shortcomings create hardships in Hamas’ ranks in Gaza’s cash economy and indicate a deepening organizational dysfunction in the militant group, as it also has a more aggressive Israeli military strategy. “Even if they sit on large quantities of cash, their ability to spread would be very limited now,” says Eyal or Open Source researcher on Gaza’s economy. Orer said that Hamas’s typical payment methods were to have a courier cash or to set up a payout point, one of which could create targets for Israeli troops. “The two things will attract attention,” he said. Hamas did not respond to a request for comments on his financial position or its methods of obtaining cash. Hamas, who controls the civilian government of Gaza, received monthly cash transfers of $ 15 million from Qatar before the war. It also raised money from places such as West Africa, South Asia and the United Kingdom, which built a stock of about $ 500 million, according to Western and Arab officials. After the war began, Israel strictly limited the transfer of physical cash to Gaza, which forced the US designated terrorist group Hamas to find ways around the restrictions. Early, the group was involved in $ 180 million of the branches of the bank of Palestine and other institutions, the current and former Palestinian officials said. Hamas used the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods to build new revenue streams, according to Arabic, Israeli and Western officials. This includes the levy of traders tax, the collection of customs on trucks at checkpoints, and resale goods. Hamas also used overseas cash to buy humanitarian goods which are then sold in Gaza and returned in cash, officials said. Even with these solutions, Hamas had a liquidity crisis near the January wire, an influx of help in Gaza, giving the group the chance to fill its coffins, Israeli and Western officials said. Those roads closed when Israel sealed the borders of Gaza to humanitarian supplies in March. “There is a major crisis in Hamas in terms of the earnings of the money,” said Moumen Al-Natour, a Palestinian lawyer at the Al-Shati Refugee Camp, in Central Gaza. Natour, who was part of a growing opposition movement to Hamas’s rule, said the group was struggling to pay Hamas affiliate government employees. “They were mainly dependent on humanitarian aid sold in black markets for cash.” Assistance organizations have criticized the cut -off, saying it dares to bring back an extreme hunger to the two million residents of the enclave. Israeli defense Minister of Defense Israel Katz said on Sunday that the blocking of help undermines the control of Hamas, saying that Israel is working on a new plan this week to distribute help by civilian partners. Palestinians in the city in Gaza after fleding at the neighborhood of Israeli evacuation orders last week. Hamas’ ability to generate revenue via assistance was so significant that Israel re -evaluated its screening process for future consignments. In the past, it focused on blocking goods that thought security risks pose. Now consider the military added, even for allowed goods if they can have a high economic value for Hamas, an Israeli official said. During the ceasefire, Hamas set up distribution points for salary collection, people cash or sometimes paid with goods, the Arab intelligence officials said. After Israel resumed its attacks in March, the payout shifted to person-to-person networks, as much of the group hid. The reduced payments make it more difficult for Hamas to bring in new recruits and maintain cohesion, as Israel utilizes more land and Gazans produces a rare spate of protests against Hamas because they did not end the war. The broader cash crisis is exacerbating the tensions on civilians in Gaza, where Israel’s currency is a legal tender. Displaced Gazane who should look for food, shelter or medicine in the crushed enclave must also scramble the cash to pay for it. Israel’s central bank has regularly refreshed Gaza’s offer of physical shekels before the war, but Gaza has not yet received an injection of new accounts since the fight began 18 months ago. Many of the 56 bank branches of Gaza and 91 ATMs were destroyed or out of service delivered by the war. Aid organizations have provided ten millions of dollars to Palestinians since the war, and according to the Arab intelligence officials paid money through popular electronic payment applications. Gazane also gets overpayments from family and friends abroad. But to turn it into cash, Palestinians have to pay commissions of more than 20%, a senior Palestinian financial official said. Nobody knows exactly how much physical cash is left in Gaza, but analysts such as Over estimate that there may be $ 3 billion in circulation in circulation. The cash shortage is so bad that it created a cottage industry with money repair stores, where Palestinians were physically the accounts and glued it again with tape so that they could penetrate circulation again. Hamas -militants in Khan Younis in southern Gaza next to a mosque destroyed during his war with Israel. Write to Summer told during the [email protected] and Benoit Faucon on [email protected], catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Israel-Hamas War Mint Specialies