Zaher Jabareen, a Palestinian residing in Turkey, is the primary financier of Hamas's operations against Israel. The United States estimates that he oversees a financial empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
In the 1980s, Jabareen managed a Hamas cell and borrowed money from his mother to buy weapons. He is now the CEO of the movement and reportedly manages Hamas's financial dealings with Iran, overseeing how Tehran funds reach Gaza. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Jabareen also runs a group of companies that provide annual income for Hamas and manages a network of private donors and businessmen who invest in favor of the Islamic group. His influence is so significant that current and former U.S. and Israeli security officials believe he has enabled Hamas to pay for weapons and salaries for militants involved in the October 7 attacks.
Former Israeli security official Ozi Shai noted that Jabareen plays a crucial role in financing Hamas outside Gaza. He was close to Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas official killed in an explosion attributed to Israel, and together they helped establish Hamas's military wing in the West Bank, maintaining close ties with Iran. Al-Arouri wrote a foreword for a book published by Jabareen after his release from prison, expressing confidence in Jabareen's commitment to the cause.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Jabareen has navigated Western sanctions for years, utilizing financial systems in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, the UAE, Sudan, and recently Turkey to establish companies and transfer money to Gaza. Israel fears that Hamas's financial empire will persist even if its military wing in Gaza is destroyed. The U.S. classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization, yet it has retained support in the Arab and Islamic worlds as a proponent of the Palestinian cause.
Under Jabareen's leadership, Hamas's financial office is located in Istanbul, where he holds shares in several companies, including a stake in a publicly listed Turkish real estate company, despite U.S. sanctions against Hamas officials and related businesses. Jabareen has stated that it is an honor to obtain funds for Hamas, denying allegations of fundraising activities and emphasizing his role within Hamas's political wing, separate from its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Turkey does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization and distinguishes between its military and political wings. Ankara claims that legal Turkish firms do not finance Hamas's military operations and have not misused the financial system. The report indicates that Jabareen has built connections with individuals close to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, assisting Hamas in acquiring weapons and funding, according to Israeli security officials.
U.S. officials tracking financial flows noted that Jabareen has helped maintain Hamas's relationship with Hezbollah in Lebanon, an Iranian proxy, by working with money changers there. Reports indicate that Iran has transferred tens of millions of dollars to Hamas in recent years through money changers using remittance systems and more recently, cryptocurrencies. These funds have been routed through money changers in Beirut, Istanbul, and other regional business hubs before reaching Gaza, according to current and former U.S. and Palestinian officials.
Jabareen was released from prison with Yahya Sinwar in 2011 as part of a deal to free over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier. While Sinwar rose through Hamas ranks in Gaza, Jabareen established himself outside Palestinian territories. Within Hamas, Jabareen manages prisoner affairs and negotiated with Sinwar on a deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt for the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, according to Egyptian officials.
Since the October 7 attacks, the U.S. has imposed four rounds of sanctions targeting Hamas officials, companies, and businessmen associated with them, including stakeholders in a listed Turkish company viewed as a front for Hamas, a Lebanese exchange house, and its owners. The U.S. has also blacklisted a Sudanese businessman it alleges runs businesses for Hamas, which include investments in a gold extraction company in Sudan and a stake in the country's largest telecom operator. However, funding from Iran and private donors has continued since the onset of conflict, with online donations to charities in Europe, Asia, and the Gulf accused of links to Hamas.
Born in 1968 in Salfit, a town in northern the West Bank, Jabareen became religious as a child, attending a local mosque and reading the works of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. In his late teens, he led a youth group called "Shooting Teams," which joined the first intifada against Israel in 1987. Jabareen revealed that his early acts of resistance included spray-painting anti-occupation slogans around Salfit.
His ambition soon turned to more violent means; to purchase weapons, a member of his group sold his car, while another sold his wife’s jewelry. Jabareen's most significant early contribution to Hamas was recruiting Palestinian Yahya Ayyash, who learned how to make explosive devices.
Early in the violence, Israeli forces arrested Jabareen on charges of killing an Israeli soldier, for which he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile, Ayyash was assassinated in 1996 when a bomb exploded next to his ear. In prison, Jabareen learned Hebrew, earned a university degree, and became one of the Hamas members responsible for prisoner affairs. He began writing a book published a year after his release in 2011. During his imprisonment, Hamas evolved from a marginal Palestinian movement to the most popular faction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The movement won the Palestinian legislative council elections in 2006, prompting Israel and the international community to boycott Hamas. A year later, Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority, allowing it to impose taxes and enhance its armed group's capacity to raise funds.
By the time of his release, Hamas had established a network of companies to fund its operations, which the U.S. states initially operated from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, funneling tens of millions of dollars from Iran to its military wing and operations in Gaza. Hamas owned a construction and real estate company there, along with a similar enterprise in Sudan led by Omar al-Bashir, who was sympathetic to Hamas, before Sudan changed its loyalties and established diplomatic relations with Israel.
Under U.S. sanctions pressure, Saudi Arabian financial officials were forced to leave Jeddah, according to current and former American and Israeli officials, although a Saudi government spokesperson did not respond for comment. Jabareen found a new home for his business empire in Turkey, where President Erdoğan supports Islamic movements across the Middle East.
The Hamas financial manager received assistance from Turkish partners to purchase and rent commercial and residential properties and buy luxury cars, according to an Israeli internal security investigation in 2018 that included the arrest of a Turkish academic accused of working with Hamas. Jabareen used his position to finance attacks against Israelis; in 2018, Israeli agencies arrested an Arab citizen from Israel who had seized hundreds of thousands of euros in cash for the Qassam militants in the West Bank, funds supplied by Jabareen in Istanbul.
In 2019, the United States imposed direct sanctions on Jabareen, later stating that he had become the mastermind behind "a financial network that allowed Hamas to collect, invest, and launder substantial amounts of money" from Turkey. Jabareen worked closely with other Hamas officials, developing a real estate portfolio in Turkey, which made up the bulk of its global assets valued at $500 million, according to U.S. estimates after a few years. This portfolio included stakes in companies based in Algeria and the UAE, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Jabareen has recently spent time in Beirut, where he fostered Hamas's relationship with Hezbollah and the money changers based in the city. The United States imposed sanctions on a Lebanese money changer for working with Hezbollah in transferring millions of dollars from Iran to Hamas's military wing; however, Israel is concerned that this may have a limited impact on Jabareen's ability to transfer funds.
