In January 2024, a woman from Gaza created a crowdfunding campaign, asking strangers for donations to help reunite her family.

“Rebuilding our lives: a journey from loss to hope,” she wrote, beneath photos of a beaming young family.

The woman, Nieama al-Ghazzawi, said she and her two children had escaped Gaza but her husband had been left behind.

Her husband’s burger stand and their home had been destroyed, and the family could not afford fees for travel and a visa, al-Ghazzawi wrote on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe.

“Your assistance means a lot to us. It will bring us back together,” she wrote.

The campaign circulated on pro-Palestinian social media, drawing hundreds of donations.

US federal investigators are now investigating that appeal as part of a probe into Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, who allegedly led a terrorist squad into Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught before moving to the US.

The incident is one of three recent federal US terrorism cases investigating humanitarian crowdfunding campaigns, highlighting potential abuse on a largely unregulated avenue for financial activity and the intersection of terror financing, social media and cryptocurrency.

In addition to the probe into al-Muhtadi, a second involves a New York-based anti-Zionist activist who was charged last month with sending funds to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. The third investigation centers around a California man who was charged with using sham charities to fundraise for Hamas.

A multibillion dollar industry

Israel and its supporters have long accused international humanitarian groups funded by donors of cooperating with Hamas in Gaza.

In the US, the landmark case against the Holy Land Foundation in the 2000s found that the purported charity had funneled more than $12 million to Hamas.

In the decades since, US investigators have cracked down on financing for terrorism through purported charity groups, including in a major international case this month.

An FBI agent investigating the case said Hamas raises funds through several channels, including the diversion of humanitarian aid through “sham charities” that shield the terror group from law enforcement.

Like major NGOs, crowdfunding platforms allow donors to make contributions to humanitarian efforts in conflict zones like Gaza, but differ in that they are more decentralized, allowing individuals to set up campaigns to collect small donations.

The platforms raise funds for causes ranging from cancer treatments to student tuition, drawing in billions in donations each year. One of the leading firms, GoFundMe, founded in 2010, says it has raised more than $40 billion from a community of 200 million.

The recent federal cases indicate the platforms could also be abused, though.

Hans-Jakob Schindler, the senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, based in New York and Berlin, framed crowdfunding for terrorism amid larger issues surrounding humanitarian aid in conflict zones controlled by groups like Hamas in Gaza and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“You either pay [the ruling groups] or you don’t get access,” said Schindler, an adviser to government leaders on terror financing, including through crowdfunding.

Schindler said that crowdfunding platforms are generally not regulated like financial institutions, such as banks, that need to do due diligence to prevent crimes like tax evasion, money........

© The Times of Israel