Man Charged in $1.7 Million Hamas Fundraising Scheme
Left 0%
Center 67%
Right 33%
0 left · 2 center · 1 right
What happened
Federal prosecutors unsealed charges Thursday against Saleem Alzaq, a 45-year-old Gaza resident they allege has been a member of Hamas — a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization — since at least 2017, and two Louisiana brothers, Abdel Adhami and Omar Adhami, over fundraising that prosecutors say raised more than $1.7 million from January 2020 through December 2025, including at least $626,000 from U.S. donors, while advertising food and other aid for Gaza. Alzaq, who has not been arrested and whom prosecutors place in Gaza, was charged with conspiring to provide material support to Hamas, to violate U.S. sanctions, to launder money, and to defraud the United States. The brothers, arrested last month, face material-support and wire-fraud charges, and Abdel also faces a money-laundering charge; they have been detained pending a hearing and have not entered pleas. Prosecutors say that in November 2025 an undercover NYPD officer posing as a Hamas supporter contacted Alzaq on Snapchat, that Alzaq directed the officer to Abdel as someone who transferred funds monthly, and that Alzaq used coded terms such as “bread” and “the Green” for Hamas. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department’s intelligence analysts uncovered the international finance network.
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Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Right-leaning coverage puts two U.S. brothers at the center of a $1.7 million Hamas fundraising story, while left-leaning coverage treats them as lesser players behind a Gaza-based accused fundraiser. The New York Post leads with the brothers being "busted" in that scheme. NBC News opens on Saleem Alzaq as the person accused of moving the money, and only then notes the brothers were also charged. When NBC lists the transfers, they fall far short of that headline total.
Left-leaning coverage describes Alzaq as a "purported media representative for Hamas," while right-leaning coverage identifies him as a Hamas member who posts propaganda. The New York Post never uses the media-representative label. NBC News never states that he is a Hamas member.
How much of the money raised as humanitarian aid, if any, actually bought food in Gaza?
Bottom line
The New York Post headlines two Louisiana brothers for the Hamas fundraising scheme even after its own tally stays well below six figures. NBC News puts the $1.7 million on a man still believed to be in Gaza.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- From Nov. 4, 2023, to June 2025, Abdel Adhami sent almost $35,000 to one PayPal account and $46,600 to another, with the money funneled to Alzaq
- Abdel allegedly funneled more than $83,000 to Hamas from 2023 to 2026
- NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the case exposed more than $2 million being funneled to Hamas
- Abdel Adhami faces a money laundering charge in addition to material support and wire fraud
- Since 2020, the operation has raised at least $1.7 million
- Alzaq was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States
The Left View
NBC News presented the case as an alleged long-running scheme in which donors “believed they were giving humanitarian aid to Gaza,” calling Alzaq a “purported media representative for Hamas” rather than treating membership as established fact. It dwelled on Abdel’s Snapchat and Instagram appeals for “the poor and orphans in Gaza,” the covert officer’s trail to the brothers, and the unfinished court process — no plea, no immediate comment from defense counsel. Tisch was quoted that the NYPD’s “counterterrorism work knows no borders.”
The Right View
The New York Post described the brothers as “busted” in a “twisted scheme to fund Hamas under the guise of Gaza humanitarian aid,” and Alzaq as “a member of the terror group who regularly uses social media to post Hamas propaganda.” It stressed that they were “brought down with the help of the NYPD” and quoted Tisch saying analysts “exposed more than $2 million being funneled to Hamas” and that this was “the kind of extraordinary counterterrorism work the NYPD does every day to disrupt threats before they reach New Yorkers.”
Our Take (balanced)
The left-leaning account’s strongest argument is that, at the charging stage, the fundraising was publicly sold as aid, so the story is still one of alleged deception rather than proven intent: NBC’s line that donors “believed they were giving humanitarian aid” tracks the complaints’ own humanitarian branding, and the brothers have not pleaded. The right-leaning account’s strongest argument is that prosecutors already describe diversion to Hamas itself, backed by the complaint’s claim that Alzaq “in fact used money from those campaigns to support Hamas,” the undercover talk of “the Green,” and Tisch’s figure of more than $2 million funneled to the group. The central unresolved tension is how much of the U.S. brothers’ conduct, before any trial, should be read as knowing material support versus participation in campaigns advertised as humanitarian and only alleged afterward to have reached Hamas.
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