- First Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah and Quds Force, an elite Iranian paramilitary unit
- Hezbollah and the Quds Force rely on digital assets to fund their militant activities
The Israeli government has seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from sender or recipient accounts allegedly used to fund the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and a powerful arm of the Iranian military, ABC News wrote.
Israel’s flagship operation targeting militants
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced an order to seize the crypto funds in wallets and place them under government control. According to him, this is the first Israeli operation targeting the Hezbollah militant group and Quds Force, an elite Iranian paramilitary unit. Both organizations say they are committed to destroying Israel.
The US and other countries have declared both of those terrorist organizations and banned them from the traditional financial system.
A multi-agency effort to cut terror fund flow
Gallant said the operation was a multi-agency effort, involving Israeli police, military intelligence, Israel’s Mossad spy agency, etc.
In the past, the country has seized crypto belonging to Hamas’ paramilitary arm in the context of at least one counterterrorism financing investigation. The minister said:
This is the first incident of this magnitude. We have effectively cut off the flow of terror funds via this channel.
Iran’s UN mission didn’t respond to comment requests.
Hezbollah and Quds rely on crypto
The minister alleges that Hezbollah and the Quds Force rely on digital assets to fund their militant activities. As cryptocurrencies are considered hard to trace, they are preferred for illicit transactions. You don’t need a name and address to open a Bitcoin account and start receiving digital funds.
Iran and other countries facing US sanctions are working on developing their own cryptocurrencies to bypass them.
A “warning” to terrorist financers
Gallant described Israel’s seizure of the illicit assets as a “warning to whoever finances terror.” Israeli authorities have developed techniques and tools to identify actors in blockchain transactions.
