A decision reportedly issued by Tel Aviv’s Magistrate Court permits the Israeli government to seize all the cryptocurrency in more than 150 digital wallets that it has blacklisted for allegedly funding terrorist organisations, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz claims that the court’s Dec. 15 decision has already allowed authorities to seize an additional $33,500 from digital wallets linked to the Islamist militant group Hamas, according to a Dec. 18 local Israeli media report.
Before the court decision, the only digital assets that Israeli authorities could legally seize were those that had direct links to terrorist activity; additional funds in the same wallets were not permitted. Authorities seized $750,000 from the wallets in December 2021.
Since 2007, Hamas has served as the de facto ruler of Palestine’s Gaza Strip, and the United States, the European Union, Israel, and the United Kingdom all categorise it as a terrorist organisation in whole or in part. Hamas started requesting Bitcoin payments from its supporters in January 2019 as a way to circumvent financial isolation and sanctions, Cointelegraph further noted.
On July 9, 2021, Gantz issued a directive allowing security personnel to seize cryptocurrency accounts thought to be connected to the militant wing of Hamas.
It has been established that the use of cryptocurrency in terrorism funding is comparatively insignificant. Early in 2022, the blockchain analytics company Chainalysis found that only a small percentage of cryptocurrency funds are used for illegal purposes.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)