In light of the ongoing tensions between the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and the Hamas militia, Israeli authorities have formally requested Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange, to place a freeze on any accounts associated with Hamas militants.
BINANCE RESPONSE TO ACCOUNTS LINKED TO HAMAS By Wednesday, the cryptocurrency platform had indeed complied with Israel's request by freezing all accounts that met the criteria outlined by Israeli authorities. However, Binance's co-founder, Yi He, provided extensive details about this action in a WeChat post.
In her statement, Yi He emphasized that Binance's actions were not extraordinary, and the platform maintains a neutral stance in the ongoing conflict. Cooperation with freeze requests of this nature is a standard practice for platforms like Binance. Furthermore, given that the Hamas group holds the status of a "designated terrorist organization by the United Nations," the move was deemed necessary.
Yi He made it clear that the decision to freeze these accounts was not within Binance's control or that of any similar trading platform.
Regarding the freeze, Yi He clarified that it specifically targeted Hamas and not the Palestinian people at large. This means that Binance accounts held by ordinary Palestinian civilians would remain unaffected. She drew a parallel with a similar situation during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, highlighting that Binance did not freeze the accounts of regular Russian citizens at that time.
Notably, crypto contributions are increasingly associated with periods of conflict. As reported by local media outlet Calcalist, Hamas initiated a fundraising drive on social media, soliciting cryptocurrency donations to their accounts. Nevertheless, a joint effort involving Lahav 433's cyber unit, the National Headquarters for Economic Warfare against Terrorism (MTL) under the Ministry of Defense, and various intelligence agencies swiftly pinpointed these accounts, as per Calcalist's account.
With the assistance of Binance, the frozen accounts are anticipated to be transferred to the state treasury.
In a parallel development, Israel's local Web3 community initiated a relief campaign aimed at assisting Israeli civilians affected by the ongoing crisis. Dubbed "Crypto Aid Israel," this initiative is designed to accommodate Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) contributions, as well as other ERC-20 tokens like Tether (USDT). Since its inception, the campaign has garnered close to $50,000 in cryptocurrency donations.
Photo by Shubham's Web3 on Unsplash
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