by Giovanni Giacalone
On Saturday, December 27, the Italian State Police and the Financial Guard arrested seven Palestinians suspected of collecting millions of euros in support of Hamas. Authorities also issued international arrests for two others outside the country.
Three associations, officially supporting Palestinian civilians but allegedly serving as a front for funding Hamas, are implicated in the investigation. According to court papers, the nine individuals are accused of having financed approximately 7 million euros ($8 million) to associations based in Gaza, the Palestinian territories, or Israel, owned, controlled, or linked to Hamas. While their official goal was to collect donations for humanitarian purposes for the Palestinian people, more than 71 percent was earmarked for the direct financing of Hamas or entities affiliated with the terror group, according to the investigators.
A slide from an Italian State Police presentation regarding the operation with the names of the seven detained
Among those arrested is Mohammad Hannoun, president of the Palestinian Association in Italy, and sanctioned twice by the US Treasury Department’s OFAC, in October 2024 and June 2025, together with his associations.
The Washington Outsider reported about Hannoun’s activity on several occasions since the October 7th massacre and, in March 2025, we released a full report entitled “The Italy/Islamists files. File 4: Mohammad Hannoun and the Hamas money-collecting network”, available here.
On Sunday, December 28, the prosecutors stated that more police searches were conducted in different Italian cities, leading to the acquisition of more hidden cash (over 1,500,000 euros), laptops, USB drives, a Hamas flag, and more material belonging to the terrorist organization.
Among other things, the hundreds of pages included in the court papers highlight a series of important factors:
- The network was well-structured, rooted and widespread on Italian soil, and with important connections to other Hamas members in Europe.
- Turkey emerged as a logistical hub with a major role as a transit hub for the collected money through one of the individuals involved in the investigation, Saleh Mohammed Ismail Abdu, Hamas’s contact in the NATO country.
- Mohammad Hannoun frequently travelled to Turkey carrying cash money and, according to investigators, he was about to flee to Istanbul shortly before being arrested.
- Hannoun maintained direct contacts with Hamas leaders including Ismail Haniyeh, Osama Hamdan, and Khalil al-Hayya.
The electronic surveillance
Some of the conversations that emerged from the recordings of the investigators are of particular interest, for instance:
- On February 15, 2024, Hannoun and one of his aides, Raed Daoud, are recorded discussing a possible delivery of money to Hezbollah from Istanbul to Amman.
- On May 1, 2024, Hannoun sent a vocal message to Ismail Haniyeh.
- On January 23, 2024, the wife of one of Hannoun’s aides (Suleiman Hijazi), claims that Hannoun is a member of Hamas.
- Hannoun’s membership in Hamas, already indicated by the US Department of Treasury in October 2024, was further confirmed by the Italian investigators in another conversation intercepted inside Hannoun’s car.
The photos
The Italy-based Palestinian preacher Riyadh al-Bustanji, among the arrested
Hannoun with the Hamas leadership
Raed Daoud (among the arrested) inside a Hamas tunnel under Gaza
The information provided above is just a small portion of a much larger content. The investigation is still ongoing and it is plausible that more arrests will occur in the near future.
Some reactions among the Palestinian exponents in Italy
One interesting reaction to the arrests came from Ezzedine Elzir, a Florence-based Palestinian preacher and former president of the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy (UCOII). An organization similar to the US-based CAIR.
Elzir released an interview to the newspaper Corriere Fiorentino where, among other things, he defended Hannoun’s association and his friend, Raed al-Salahat (Florence-based and among the arrested):
“I know all the people involved, I know their organizations and their history. For me, this whole affair is a soap bubble. I know it was under investigation years ago, but after years of investigations, it was acquitted.”
As the interviewer asked, “where was the collected money going”? Elzir replied:
“He (Salahat) always raised funds for the Genoa association, which then donated them to Palestine”.
According to the investigators, Salahat is a member of Hamas’s foreign sector and a money collector who closely collaborated with Majed al-Zeer, a senior Hamas representative in Germany, who is also one of the senior Hamas members in Europe and has played a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising. Al-Zeer was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s OFAC in October 2024, together with Hannoun.
Interestingly, in “The 2024 Handbook of Political Islam in Europe”, the section on Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhood in Italy, reports a conversation between the author, Dr. Tommaso Virgili, and Ezzedine Elzir where the latter claims that he does not consider Hamas as terrorists but rather as freedom fighters. (p.446).
Another reaction worth mentioning comes from Rania Hammad, representative for the Palestinian Community of Rome and Latium, with a press release on its Facebook page:
“Against the campaign of repression and criminalization.
Solidarity with the Palestinian people is not terrorism.
Palestinian communities in Italy express their full confidence in the Italian judiciary and deep concern over what is happening in the country regarding the recent arrests, which risk taking the form of repression against the Palestinian movement and solidarity with Palestine.
In this context, we trust in respect for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, ensuring transparency, impartiality, and full protection of the rights of all those involved.
Palestinian communities in Italy will continue to work with determination against the Israeli occupation to defend the right to self-determination, freedom, and justice, based on UN resolutions and international law.
Long live international solidarity.
Free Palestine.”
