Washington Targets Hamas's French Charity Fronts as Tokyo Lists 81 Russia-Linked Parties and Ships

On 2 October 2026 OFAC designated Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, a Gaza-based battalion deputy in Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades who Treasury says oversees a financial network of money services businesses and cryptocurrency wallets. Two France-based fundraisers were listed with him: Faouzi Barika, who co-founded Association Baraka in Saint-André-de-Cubzac with al-Zaq, and Amel Oualid, who set up Ensemble C Mieux in Saint-Étienne. Both charities were designated as owned or controlled by their founders. Treasury says the three collected more than USD 2 million for Hamas between 2020 and 2026, USD 1.5 million of it after the attack of 7 October 2023, and that Barika and Oualid sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to al-Zaq in cryptocurrency. The action was coordinated with an FBI-led operation against Hamas fundraising, and every listing carries secondary sanctions risk for foreign banks.

Japan moved the same day. Under a Cabinet understanding of 2 October it froze the assets of 33 Russian entities and 9 individuals, among them two Rostec executives, the former head of the Lobaev Foundation and the heads of several listed companies, plus the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex Europe and three companies in the Alabuga special economic zone. It also banned exports to 4 third-country suppliers, one in Türkiye and three in the UAE, and required permits for services to 35 vessels identified only by IMO number. In Australia, on 3 October the Foreign Minister relisted 16 people and entities under the counter-terrorism framework that implements UN resolution 1373, among them Islamic State Sinai Province, the Gaza money transfer company Buy Cash and four Iranians first listed in 2011, the year the US linked them to a plot against the Saudi ambassador in Washington. Those listings would otherwise have lapsed after three years.