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London- Alsharq Tribune- Al Otaify
A British Muslim charity has been used to bankroll Hamas, the FBI has said. The Al-Khair Foundation, one of Britain’s biggest Muslim charities, was used as a front to send money and “truckloads” of goods to leaders of the terrorist organisation in Gaza under the guise of aid, it is alleged.
Mohammad Yousef Hasna, its “global director”, was arrested in London last week and is now facing extradition to the United States, accused of financing and conspiring to support the Palestinian terror group.
The Al-Khair Foundation, a registered UK charity and partner of the UN’s refugee agency, had an income of £74m last year alone.
As well as aid work, it runs Islamic schools in Britain and abroad and has worked closely with the Government, including being quoted in a government press release on a new scheme combatting hate against Muslims.
In the last five years it has claimed more than £9m from HMRC in Gift Aid, the tax relief scheme that allows charities to claim back tax on eligible donations.
The allegations raise questions about how much of British donors’ money may have been syphoned to the terror group and why the charity was not investigated sooner.
MPs have called for more scrutiny of charities and an immediate crackdown on any accused of being linked to terrorist funding.
Mr Hasna, who is based in Turkey, became a regional director at Al-Khair in August 2018 and has been a global director since 2023, using it as a “front organisation,” the charge sheet states.
He is a “longtime supporter of Hamas” and before he was employed by Al-Khair he posted messages on his social media “glorifying terrorists”, it adds.
The US indictment, seen by The Telegraph, refers to Al-Khair as “the Sham Charity” throughout and notes that its gross income “nearly doubled following the October 7 Hamas Massacres”, rising from £31.28m to £74.79m.
Charity Commission data show that Al-Khair received more than £130m in donations and legacies over the course of 2024 and 2025.
The Charity Commission has launched an investigation into its alleged links with Hamas and has banned it from spending money without the consent of the regulator.
The Metropolitan Police’s counter terrorism unit has also launched an investigation into potential terrorism funding allegations and raided two addresses in Croydon on July 31 – the same day that Mr Hasna was arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency.
A statement from the US department of justice read:
In July 2024, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it had killed Hossam Mansour, one of the charity’s workers, who was acting as a platoon commander for Hamas.
However, the charity maintains that he was a “senior aid worker” in Gaza carrying out humanitarian work.
According to the FBI indictment, Mr Hasna “used his senior role at a purported global humanitarian organisation to raise funds and provide financing and commodities to Hamas”.
Agents examined encrypted messages sent between Mr Hasna and Ghazi Hamad, described as “a high-level Hamas leader”.
They show them using the charity’s name and warehouses to get goods to Hamas.
Messages are claimed to show that Mr Hasna “coordinated extensively with individuals at the highest levels of Hamas to raise funds, as well as to procure and transport commodities and materials to Gaza”.
The charges state he also “manipulated photographs and documents to conceal from the public and potential donors that Hamas was the actual beneficiary of his fundraising and to obfuscate the true nature of his purportedly humanitarian work”.
Mr Hasna also asked Hamad to use his “contact with the United Nations, the Red Cross, and details like that” to promote an event organised by the charity in 2024.
Later that year the pair discussed “sending truckloads of purported humanitarian aid into Gaza under the name of the Sham Charity, to be sent to warehouses controlled by Hamas’s sham charity network before onward distribution into Gaza for the benefit of Hamas,” the FBI states.
They discussed funding, including a $3,000 (£2,220) cash payment and a ledger which the US investigators say shows that Hamad personally received approximately $700,000 (£519,000).
Mr Hasna is currently in custody in the UK awaiting an extradition hearing later this month.
The US Treasury has previously estimated that Hamas may have received as much as $10m (£7.4m) a month through sham charities.
Greg Smith, the Conservative MP for Mid Buckinghamshire and the parliamentary chairman for the Conservative Friends of Israel, said that it is “absolutely appalling” if there hasn’t been oversight of “an organisation masquerading as a charity and receiving UK taxpayers’ money through Gift Aid as well as people innocently donating”.
“On a practical level the Government now needs to urgently crack down and ensure that we are working closely with the Americans on getting to the bottom of every detail of this and ensure that all those who have abused the charitable system and aided terrorism are prosecuted under the full force of our law and any other applicable law,” Mr Smith said.
Lord Mann, a former Labour MP and the Government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism, said this was a “wider issue than any single charity”.
He said: “My advice to the Government has been that the Charity Commission requires additional powers that need legislation as they don’t currently have the flexibility to deal with those running charities who are misusing them and it remains my advice that legislation to improve the Charity Commission’s powers should be brought forward in this Parliament.”
The Al-Khair Foundation has attempted to distance itself from Mr Hasna, saying that he is “employed by one of our implementing partners”.
A spokesman added: “Al-Khair Foundation is a humanitarian organisation established in 2003.
We are a proudly British, UK-registered charity with a distinguished record spanning more than two decades of delivering humanitarian assistance and alleviating poverty and suffering in more than 75 countries worldwide.
“We take our responsibility to safeguard the funds entrusted to us by our generous donors with the utmost seriousness and are committed to ensuring they are used for their intended humanitarian purposes.”
When approached by The Telegraph about the FBI investigation, the spokesman said: “Serious questions are rightly being asked, and our commitment to full cooperation means we will fully answer questions from the Charity Commission and other relevant authorities.”
The charity’s work includes an agreement with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that the two organisations will work together to provide schooling in Gaza.
A spokesman for the Met’s counter terrorism policing (CTP) London unit said: “Officers from CTP London are investigating potential terrorism funding allegations linked to the UK-based charity Al-Khair Foundation.
“As part of this investigation, officers carried out two search warrants at addresses in the Croydon area on Friday, 31 July. No arrests have been made in connection with this investigation.
Inquiries are ongoing and we also remain in contact with the Charity Commission in relation to this matter. “We are also aware of an arrest and investigation led by US authorities into allegations against a UK-based individual linked to funding of a terrorist organisation.
The FBI are leading the investigation in relation to that individual, although CTP London remains in contact with colleagues in the US over this matter.” Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles - and feel brighter every day.
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