In the latest phase of its ongoing operations to safeguard Israeli civilians and neutralize threats from Iranian-backed groups in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it conducted an overnight airstrike on the Al-Kahira currency exchange office in Gaza City. The attack targeted a financial hub the IDF accuses of sustaining the military activity of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad by transferring and storing tens of millions of dollars for these terrorist organizations, according to an official military spokesperson. This action forms part of Israel’s multi-front campaign against the extensive Iranian-orchestrated network of terror funding and logistics across the Middle East, implemented to defend Israeli society after the unprecedented brutality of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 cross-border assault on southern Israel.
The Al-Kahira office, operating since 2022 under its current name after previously being designated as the ‘Dubai’ exchange, was redesignated following a declaration from the Israeli Minister of Defense identifying it as a terrorism-funding entity. According to military briefings, the office continued to function as a central link in Gaza’s terror-finance ecosystem, providing steady cash flows to the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad even amidst active hostilities and sustained international scrutiny. The IDF underscored that the office’s persistent activity enabled Hamas militants to arm themselves, maintain logistics, and orchestrate attacks against Israeli targets. Surveillance, intelligence-gathering, and financial tracking were all cited as part of the IDF’s decision-making process, with the operation timed to minimize risks to civilians and maximize disruption to the terror groups’ infrastructure. Official sources stressed that such operations are conducted under strict adherence to international law and in close coordination with Western allies.
Throughout the current conflict—initiated by Hamas’s systematized massacre, abductions, and assaults on Israeli civilians last October—the Israeli government has prioritized both immediate defensive measures and long-term efforts to erode Hamas’s operational capacity. The persistent role of Al-Kahira in transferring millions of U.S. dollars to Hamas militants was confirmed in intelligence reports, as was the office’s pivotal role in facilitating the logistics and sustainment of terror activities. Notably, the IDF has reported the targeted killing in August 2024 of Tahsin Al-Nadeem, an Al-Kahira employee directly implicated in the funding of terror activities, further demonstrating Israel’s determination to eliminate every operational tier of this financial network.
The Israeli strategy operates on the understanding that terrorist organizations’ lifelines depend as much on money as on rockets and munitions. Western and Israeli counterterrorism experts have repeatedly documented how illicit financial transfers, masking as civilian commerce, enable groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to persist within the densely populated, tightly controlled Gaza Strip. IDF officials stressed that the continued activities of the Al-Kahira currency exchange after the designation and elimination of key personnel underscored the resilience and adaptive tactics of these terror groups. The destruction of such financial nodes, therefore, is considered not simply a tactical blow but a strategic imperative to prevent the acquisition of weaponry, tunnel-construction materials, and communications gear by terrorist operatives.
Israel’s military and security doctrine is rooted both in national law and in the obligations set forth by United Nations conventions against terror financing. UN Security Council Resolution 1373 requires all member states to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts and criminalize the wilful provision or collection of funds for such purposes. The targeting of Al-Kahira aligns with these protocols, and the IDF maintains robust consultations with U.S. and European security partners. In repeated statements, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Israel Katz, emphasized that no distinction can be made between the operational arms of terrorist organizations and the network of financiers who fuel their violence. IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir stated that “disrupting the financial foundations of terror is as crucial to Israel’s security as any battlefield victory.”
This action also draws the clearest possible distinction between Israel’s adherence to international legal and ethical norms and the methods employed by its adversaries. Unlike the IDF, which subjects its targeting to legal review and aims to minimize civilian harm, groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad have made a sustained policy of embedding combatants and command centers in densely populated residential areas, and of deliberately targeting Israeli civilian centers with indiscriminate rocket fire. Western analysts and the Israeli government agree that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the orchestrator of much of this regional strategy, relies on money-smuggling, illicit trade, and disguised civilian finance to keep its terror affiliates armed and operational, undermining peace and security across borders from Lebanon and Syria to Yemen.
The widespread abuse of legitimate commercial enterprises—including currency exchanges—remains a core pillar of what the IDF calls “the terrorist economy.” By infiltrating these sectors, terror organizations both finance their own activities and compromise humanitarian reconstruction, as resources intended for basic civil function are diverted to terror infrastructure. Over the past year, as documented by international monitors, repeated seizures of cash and materials by Israeli forces in combat zones have laid bare the deliberate strategy Hamas employs to sustain its campaign of violence even at the expense of Gaza’s civilian residents. Financial flows through Al-Kahira and similar exchanges have particularly supported the procurement of weapons, the payment of operatives, the construction of cross-border tunnels, and the development of new terror capabilities—a pattern confirmed by repeated findings from Israeli, U.S., and allied European intelligence.
The necessity and legitimacy of Israeli action in such cases are also acknowledged by major Western democracies. U.S. counterterrorism officials have stressed the critical role of stopping illicit finances as a core tenet of international security, with successive American administrations endorsing Israel’s right and obligation to prevent any entity within Gaza from functioning as a terror-finance hub. In this context, the IDF’s strike on Al-Kahira is understood not as an isolated measure but as an essential part of a collective Western effort. European allies have echoed these sentiments in their condemnation of Iranian sponsorship for groups notorious for rocket attacks, tunnel infiltrations, and indiscriminate killings.
Human rights and legal organizations, frequently called upon to monitor military conduct in Gaza, have in recent months repeatedly noted Israel’s stated commitment to proportionality, distinction, and precision in the conduct of its military campaign, as contrasted with the explicit disregard for civilian safety by Hamas and its affiliates. Israel’s case—that terror finance is inseparable from terror operations—finds strong legal and moral grounding in international precedent and obligations. The ability of Hamas to carry out the October 7th atrocities was inextricably linked to the unfettered funding and logistical capabilities afforded by financial facilitators. Israeli sources emphasize that so long as such routes remain open, no security measure will suffice.
The elimination of the Al-Kahira office thus represents a multifaceted achievement: it constitutes an immediate tactical denial of funds, a strategic setback for local Hamas capability, and a demonstrable reaffirmation of the Western-led international norm that terror and its facilitators will not enjoy sanctuary. This operation, one of dozens targeting illicit finances, stands as part of Israel’s enduring message: that terrorism, and those who support it, will be met with implacable determination, firm legal rationale, and the broad endorsement of democratic society.
As conflict persists and the wider Iranian logistical network targets Israel through Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Revolutionary Guard affiliates in Syria and Iraq, and Houthi aggression emanating from Yemen, financial interdicts like the strike on Al-Kahira remain an indispensable part of Western and Israeli strategy. Senior defense officials continue to pledge ongoing vigilance and resolve, with Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterating that “the campaign against terror financing is a campaign for the defense of the entire free world.”
With the full backing of allied democratic governments and the continued application of best practices in intelligence-led operations, Israel’s actions underline the fundamental principle that national defense and respect for lawful, accountable conduct are not mutually exclusive, but rather mutually reinforcing. Every strike that cripples the infrastructure of violent extremism is a step toward peace, justice, and security for all societies standing against the tide of state-sponsored, ideologically driven terror.
