Justice Dept. Charges Gaza-Based Alleged Hamas Operative, Arrests Three in U.S. Over Fundraising Network

The Justice Department said Friday that it has unsealed an indictment against a Gaza-based alleged Hamas operative and arrested three U.S.-based men accused of helping raise and route money from the United States to the militant group through a fundraising network presented as charitable aid.

The Oct. 2 announcement turns what had largely been a sanctions and asset-seizure effort into a criminal enforcement case spanning multiple jurisdictions. Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment against Saleem Alzaq, while criminal complaints were filed against Omar Adhami and Abdel Adhami in the Eastern District of Louisiana and an indictment against Raed Yousef was filed in the Middle District of Florida. The Justice Department said the network collected more than $1.7 million since at least January 2020, including donations from people in the United States, and said the investigation was coordinated with U.S. and French authorities.

According to the department, Alzaq, 45, is a Gaza resident and alleged Hamas member who served as a battalion deputy in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the group’s military wing, and also worked as a photographer in Hamas’s Shujaiyya Brigade media office. Those are government allegations.

The three U.S.-based defendants are Omar Adhami, 33, of Covington, Louisiana; Abdel Adhami, 35, also of Covington; and Raed Yousef, 56, of Lutz, Florida. DOJ said Abdel Adhami contributed about $94,000 to the network from February 2021 through September 2026, Omar Adhami contributed about $11,000, and Yousef contributed almost $50,000.

Prosecutors said Alzaq operated the fundraising network “since at least about January 2020,” collecting money through purported charitable campaigns that allegedly supported Hamas. The indictment against him includes charges of conspiracy to provide material support to Hamas, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The Adhami defendants and Yousef face charges including providing or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as well as wire fraud and money laundering counts, according to DOJ. The department said Yousef also faces passport fraud charges.

“Anyone who finances or assists terrorist organizations responsible for the deaths of American citizens should expect to be prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the department’s press release.

The FBI and DOJ said investigators relied on coordination across jurisdictions and used blockchain analysis, open-source and human-source methods, and court-authorized seizures. The case fits into a broader U.S. campaign aimed at Hamas fundraising channels, including online networks and cryptocurrency flows.

Hamas has been designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997, a designation that underpins federal material-support charges. Last month, on Sept. 1, the Justice Department announced the seizure of about $560,000 in cryptocurrency and the takedown of domains and servers that it said were used by Hamas to solicit donations.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau would continue pursuing such cases. “We will never stop our efforts to cut off funding to Hamas terrorists,” he said in the DOJ statement.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control separately imposed sanctions the same day on Saleem al-Zaq, Faouzi Barika, Amel Oualid and two France-based associations. Treasury has also said linked actors collected more than $2 million from 2020 to 2026, including $1.5 million after Oct. 7, 2023, a different government accounting than DOJ’s $1.7 million allegation in the criminal case.

DOJ also said France’s domestic intelligence service, known as the DGSI, arrested Faouzi Barika, Amel Oualid and Nordine Barika as part of the coordinated operation. French authorities had not publicly confirmed those arrests at the time of the U.S. announcement, according to the available research.

The charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.