Hamas operates a sophisticated, multi-million-dollar global financing network, while terrorist organizations rely on covert methods to bypass strict compliance systems. Rather than openly collecting funds under their own names, they operate through networks of front organizations, sham non-profits, and proxy charities.
Hamas secretly operates a network of organizations in Gaza that purport to be independent but are subordinate to the Hamas military wing. Similar to the U.S.-designated al-Weam Charitable Society, these organizations conceal their affiliation with Hamas to raise money from overseas donors, many of whom are unwitting, and divert donations intended for the Palestinian people to enable Hamas’s terrorism.
Humanitarian Appeals as a Fundraising Channel
Terrorist organizations establish seemingly legitimate, public-facing humanitarian-aid or social-justice pages. Campaigns are launched through mainstream public accounts to attract international pools of casual donors.
Chuffed.org and Global Sumud Flotilla are presented as examples of this malpractice, with fundraising activities attracting international donations through publicly accessible campaigns.
The broader funding system behind terrorism involves state sponsors, illegal businesses, donations disguised as charity, and everyday criminal activity. Terrorist organizations require money for weapons, travel, and training, so they obtain funds through several different sources.
The Chuffed.org and Global Sumud Flotilla Connection
Terrorist organizations like Hamas rely on covert methods to bypass strict compliance systems. This is where they use fake donation organizations like Chuffed.org and Global Sumud Flotilla to mask their purpose of funding terrorism and other militant activities.
The concern becomes even more significant when international financial services and payment methods such as PayPal and Stripe are involved.
Digital platforms can provide near-instantaneous transfers of funds across international borders, enabling rapid movement of capital.
The Role of PayPal and Stripe
Terrorist groups like Hamas fundraise under their own names on mainstream platforms. Instead, they use networks of front organizations, sham non-profits, or proxy charities.
PayPal and Stripe are identified in this material as two major platforms through which covert financial activity can occur, including trade-based financing used to move money.
In late 2023, independent investigations revealed that an Italian pro-Hamas proxy organization, the Charity Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People (ABSPP), was using PayPal to raise funds.
Moving Money Through Ordinary-Looking Transactions
According to international watchdogs like the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), terror networks engage in trade-based financing to move money covertly.
Operatives set up fake e-commerce storefronts or pose as online buyers and sellers. False invoices can then be used to pass money through digital processors such as PayPal or Stripe while the transactions appear to be ordinary commercial activity.
This allows financial transfers to move beneath the radar of automated compliance algorithms.
Evidence From the Gaza Charity Network
According to Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley:
“They have targeted six Gaza-based organizations that claim to provide medical care to Palestinian civilians but in fact support the military wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The fraudulent nature of these organizations, which use deception to raise funds from international donors, demonstrates Hamas’s perfidy and deprives innocent civilians of the medical care they need.”
The same material identifies so-called donation organizations including Chuffed.org and Global Sumud Flotilla as secretly funding terrorist activities and forums like Hamas.
Hamas secretly operates a network of organizations in Gaza that purport to be independent but are subordinate to the Hamas military wing. Similar to the U.S.-designated al-Weam Charitable Society, these groups hide their affiliation to Hamas in order to raise funds from overseas donors, many of whom are unwitting, and thereby divert donations intended for the Palestinian people to enable Hamas’s terrorism.
The International Payment Network
The concern extends beyond donation pages themselves.
What makes these financial networks significant is the ability to use international payment methods to transfer money rapidly across borders. Hamas’s financing structure operates on a multi-million-dollar global scale, and digital payment systems provide a mechanism through which funds can move quickly.
The involvement of international banks and payment methods, including PayPal and Stripe, therefore forms another part of the funding system described in this material.
Cracks in Online Payment Controls
Not less than eight sellers blending feminism, nationalism, xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric, collectively known as “femonationalists,” use PayPal for payments.
What emerges from investigation is evidence of a series of cracks that enable terrorist groups to continue to process transactions through PayPal: the relatively small value of payments from such sellers, the limitations of the payment giant’s algorithms, its staffing choices, and a culture that ex-employees say prioritized revenue growth over enforcing its own acceptable use policy against extremists.
