Prosecutors allege long-running scheme to raise money for Hamas

Hamas militants in Gaza City in January. Mahmud Hams / AFP via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleOct. 1, 2026, 4:55 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 1, 2026, 7:14 PM EDTBy Tom Winter and Jonathan DienstA purported media representative for Hamas has been accused of funneling roughly $1.7 million to the terrorist organization from donors in the U.S. and elsewhere who believed they were giving humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday.

Saleem Alzaq was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York and was charged with money laundering and violating sanctions, according to the charging document. He was believed to be in Gaza.

Two brothers in the U.S. were also charged in connection with the long-running scheme to raise money for Hamas, by disseminating propaganda and soliciting donations for “the poor and orphans in Gaza” via social media, court records show.

Abdel Adhami and Omar Adhami were arrested last month in Louisiana, but the details of their charges were unsealed only after they made their first court appearances, court dockets show.

Abdel Adhami faces charges of material support to a foreign terrorist organization, wire fraud and money laundering, according to a complaint filed on Sept. 11 in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Meanwhile, his brother Omar Adhami is also charged with material support and wire fraud charges, according to his complaint.

An attorney for the brothers didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. They were detained pending a detention hearing and have not yet entered a plea.

From 2021 to November 2025, Abdel Adhami used various Snapchat accounts to post Hamas propaganda and raise money for the terrorist organization after referring social media followers to his Telegram account, according to his criminal complaint.

Abdel Adhami also allegedly solicited money for Gaza through Instagram.

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Investigators were able to identify Abdel Adhami as the source of those funds last year, after an NYPD online covert officer reached out to Alzaq.

Alzaq, in turn, unwittingly referred the covert NYPD officer back to Abdel Adhami, the complaint states.

“This is the message I wanted to deliver to the person who donated the bread,” Alzaq said around Jan. 28, 2024, in a voice message to a Snapchat account controlled by Abdel Adhami, according to the court papers. “Some of them received the bread, thanks be to God.”

In his complaint, investigators said Omar Adhami also sent Alzaq some $3,000 and on one occasion requested “to have a sheep or goat slaughtered for the needy and poor in Gaza.”

New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday in a statement that the NYPD’s “counterterrorism work knows no borders. Our intelligence analysts uncovered this international finance network and built the case.”

Tom WinterTom Winter is NBC’s National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Correspondent.

Jonathan DienstJonathan Dienst is chief justice contributor for NBC News and chief investigative reporter for WNBC-TV in New York.