The documents from the Genoa investigation show that the arrest of Mohammed Hannoun is only the tip of the iceberg: behind the fundraising for Hamas emerges a structured network of relationships, contacts and political legitimations that have remained under wraps for years.
In these hours public attention seems to focus almost exclusively onarrest of Mohammed Hannounas if the judicial operation could definitively close a complex affair. It’s yet another one emotional waveuseful for simplifying the story: a name, a provision, the case archived. But stopping here means don’t look at the system which for years has allowed a central figure in the Hamas ecosystem in Italy to move, raise funds, build consensus and political relations. In fact, the documents from the Genoese investigation tell much more. «Most of the money goes… to Mugawama», the armed resistance of Hamas. And again: «We sacrifice ourselves with money and time, but they with blood». The sentences attributed to Mohammed Hannoun and to his interlocutors they are not, for the investigating judge of Genoa Silvia Carpanini, slogans or lexical ambiguities, but proof of full awareness of the real destination of the funds raised in Italy. Not humanitarian assistance, but direct support to the terrorist organization. According to the reconstruction contained in the documents, the money was not intended “solely and exclusively to fuel the social activities” of the movement, but also “to the operational needs of the military wing”, to support “the families of the martyrs, the wounded and the prisoners”. A circuit which, for the prosecution, does not represent simple welfare, but a structural component of the mechanism that fuels the armed struggle. The numbers put together by the Financial Police and the Police are clear: at least “71 percent of the exits” of the associations attributable to the suspects would have ended up with Hamas or with subjects “in any case referable” to the movement. The interceptions reinforce this picture. In one of the dialogues on file, a suspect summarizes the division of roles thus: «We sacrifice ourselves with money and time, but they with blood». For the Prosecutor’s Office it is the explicit representation of a system in which those who raise funds from abroad know perfectly well that they are supporting those who fight on the ground.
What makes the accusatory system even more solid are the direct relationships with the Hamas summit. The papers dedicate a specific chapter to the meetings between Hannoun and Ismail Haniyehkilled by Israel in July 2024 while in Iran. The acquaintance between the two is documented by photographs that portray them together in official meetings, but also by wiretaps and public statements of the same Hannoun. After the death of Haniyehthe suspect claims that relationship in an intervention broadcast on social media and also followed live in the association’s premises, stating that he last saw him “a month before”. Already on April 30, 2024, speaking in the car with his wife and daughter, Hannoun reported having been summoned: “They told me they want to see me, I’ll go see Ismail”, using the nickname Abu al Abed. For the Prosecutor’s Office, a phrase indicative of a call coming from the organization to which the suspect is believed to belong. The meeting, initially postponed, would then take place in Doha, in the presence of other leading exponents of the jihadist movement. The picture extends to contacts on Italian territory. The cell attributable to Hannoun had several references: among the names cited (not investigated) the imam of Turin appears in several conversations Mohamed Shahin. In some interceptions, concern about the ongoing investigation also emerges. «If ad Abu Rashad they gave him one year, they will give us six years”, he says Abu Falastine (Mousa Dawoud Ra’Ed Hussny), assuming the discovery of computers and compromising documents. From here the “cleaning” of files takes shape: deleting archives, saving them on flash drives, entrusting them to trusted people. “I’m also thinking of breaking the office PC,” says one of the suspects. «Don’t leave anything» insists another.
It is in this context that the project to move the entire operation abroad matured. The wiretaps and the order speak of an already very advanced plan: storing the files “in Istanbul”, opening current accounts outside Italy, transferring archives and documentation to Türkiye where Hamas does the good and the bad weather. For months the role of Türkiye in the financial galaxy of Hamas is at the center of accusations and diplomatic tensions, but one question remains unanswered: How much money from the Islamist movement is really deposited in Turkish banks? The answer, to date, is that there is no official and verified figure. The highest estimates circulated in the media derive from Israeli political statements. In particular, the Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz claimed that the former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (like the other Hamas leaders), would have accumulated up to 3 billion dollars also kept in Türkiye. Ankara has though rejected the chargesdenying as always the existence of accounts attributable to the organization.
The Genoa Prosecutor’s Office highlights how Hannoun had a Turkish passport, a bank account and two homes in Istanbul (worth 1.3 million euros), and how he had planned his departure in recent months, with the intention of being joined shortly by his family. Hence the reference to a «concrete and very current danger of escape» and to a project to «move the activity of the association» to a country where the suspect «could have operated without difficulty», sending funds to Hamas without the need to disguise them as humanitarian aid. And it is precisely here that the exclusive emphasis on arrest risks turning into a collective alibi. Because the story is not just about a single man, but a system of relationships, covers and legitimations which has operated in broad daylight for years. Trips, public events, meetings, applause, political presences in the front row: a world that has guaranteed space and visibility to an architect of the Hamas network in Italy. A world that today remains largely unexplored and which absolutely needs to be investigated. The arrest marks an important judicial step, but does not close the story. On the contrary, it opens up a broader and more uncomfortable question: Who allowed all this for all these years? And because that network, even today, seems to remain on the margins of public debate.
