Palestinian militant group Hamas to raise funds using Bitcoin

• A Bitcoin wallet address is provided to anyone who visits their website, Qassam Brigades.
• The militant group’s channel is untraceable, making it difficult to track down people funding them.

Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, has devised a way of raising funds using Bitcoin. The group has been deemed as a “terror outfit” by many Western countries. Due to this reason, they are unable to raise funds through traditional financial systems. A Bitcoin wallet address is provided to anyone who visits the latest version of their website, Qassam Brigades. People can use the address to send them the funds.

The channel is also largely untraceable, making it difficult for law enforcement agencies to track down people who are funding such outfits. The site also features a video on how to purchase and send Bitcoins.

According to a report by the New York Times, the government has put out an alert after observing that Islamist terror authorities are exploiting the digital coin technology for funding their terror activities. The funds collected may not be huge, but law enforcers believe that a lot of terrorist attacks can be executed with very little money.  

Yaya Fanusie, a former analyst at Central Intelligence Agency, said:

“You are going to see more of this. This module will become a part of the terror financing mix, and people should start paying attention to it.”