Israel says strike kills Hamas, Islamic Jihad funding network leaders

Israeli forces killed Hussein Qadra and Mohammed Farra in southern Gaza, the military said, describing them as operators in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wings and as central figures in a financing network that moved more than half a billion shekels, about $169 million, to Hamas. The strike took place on Wednesday, June 18, and was made public on Sunday, June 21, putting finance rather than front-line combat at the center of the latest Israeli claim.

According to the military, Qadra headed the network with Farra under Hamas leadership, and the money helped pay salaries and finance attacks against Israeli troops and civilians. Israeli officials said the operation ran through dozens of couriers and money exchangers in Turkey and the Gaza Strip, a structure built to move cash across borders while obscuring where it came from and where it ended up. That is the practical logic of militant finance: disperse the chain, add intermediaries and keep the system flexible enough to survive losses at any one point.

The strike also fit a wider campaign against Hamas financing channels. In December 2025, Israeli officials disclosed what they described as an Iran-directed Hamas money network in Turkey built around Gazan money changers, including Tamer Hassan, Khalil Farwana and Farid Abu Dair, and said the system moved hundreds of millions of dollars through Turkish financial channels. The June operation suggested Israel is trying to hit not only commanders and weapons stocks but also the accounting and transfer systems that keep armed groups paying salaries and replacing materiel.

Independent evidence of the broader concern came from Washington as well. The State Department said in May that it was targeting international networks that enable Hamas to sustain operations and finance violence. Still, the public record does not show how much the June 18 strike will change Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s ability to move money over time. If the network was a replaceable courier chain, the effect may be limited; if it was a hub linking Gaza and Turkey, the disruption could force costlier rerouting. Either way, the episode showed that the struggle over Gaza now runs through cash paths, foreign intermediaries and the institutions that keep armed groups functioning.