Lebanese money changer linked to Hamas funds killed

Shafaq News/ On Wednesday, a Lebanese man subject to US sanctions accused of facilitating money transfers from Iran to Hamas was killed near Beirut.

An anonymous security source reported the killing of a Lebanese money changer, who was under Washington's sanctions for allegedly facilitating money transfers from Iran to the military wing of Hamas, Ezz Eldin Al-Qassam brigades, near the capital, Beirut.

The source told AFP that Mohammad Srour was found dead after being shot at least five times on Tuesday in a house in the town of Beit Mery overlooking the Lebanese capital.

The source indicated that Srour was carrying a sum of money that the perpetrators of the crime did not steal.

On Tuesday evening, the Lebanese National News (NNA) Agency reported the discovery of the body of a "citizen (M.I.S.)" aged 57 near Beit Mery.

The source mentioned that Srour worked in financial institutions affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian party.

In August 2019, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on four individuals, including Srour, accusing him of "facilitating the transfer of tens of millions of dollars from the Quds Force, responsible for foreign operations in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, to Hamas, through Hezbollah in Lebanon, to carry out terrorist operations emanating from the Gaza Strip."

It noted that Srour "was responsible for all financial transfers" between the two parties by 2014 and had "a long history of working at Beit Al-Mal Bank."

The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control classified Beit Al-Mal as an institution "owned or controlled by or acting for or on behalf of Hezbollah" in 2006.

In early March 2024, Jesse Baker, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Asia and the Middle East in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (TFFC), visited Beirut, urging Lebanese political and financial officials to prevent money transfers to Hamas from Lebanon, as reported by press reports.