Italy-based pro-Hamas leader publicly praises executions of ‘collaborators’

On Saturday, October 18, 2025, during another pro-Palestinian demonstration, the leader of the Association of Palestinians in Italy, Mohammad Hannoun, who is already well-known to Italian authorities, once again harangued the crowd from the truck leading the march, praising the law of retaliation while discussing Hamas’s executions in Gaza after the peace agreement was signed: “All revolutions in the world have their laws. Those who kill must be killed, collaborators must be killed”, as reported by the Italian daily newspaper Liberoquotidiano.

The author, Massimo Sanvito, is absolutely correct when he begins the article as follows: “The premise is a question: what else does Mohammad Hannoun have to say before his expulsion from Italy is considered?”.

Hannoun and two of his associations (ABSPP and Golden Dome) were blacklisted by the US Department of Treasury’s OFAC twice, in October 2024 and June 2025 as the individual was indicated as a Hamas member and money collector for the terrorist organization in Italy:

The DOT states that Hannoun is “an Italy-based Hamas member who established the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, or Associazione Benefica di Solidarietà con il Popolo Palestinese (ABSPP), a sham charity in Italy which ostensibly raises funds for humanitarian purposes, but in reality helps bankroll Hamas’s military wing. As an executive at ABSPP, Hannoun has sent money to Hamas-controlled organizations since at least 2018. He has solicited funding for Hamas with senior Hamas officials and sent at least $4 million to Hamas over a 10-year period”.

Furthermore, in October 2024, the European Leadership Network (Elnet) published a report on Hamas in Europe, dedicating the Italian part to Hannoun and associates, and exposing the links between Hannoun and individuals active in other European countries and also indicated as connected to Hamas.

On Saturday, August 16, 2025, once again from Italian soil, Hannoun attacked the US Treasury Department during a street demonstration in Milan organized by the Association of Palestinians in Italy. Furthermore, he denied being a member of Hamas while in the meantime claiming support for the terrorist group: “I am a supporter of Hamas, just as I am a supporter of every faction that fights for my rights”. Moreover, he also named the DOT accusation “a lie and a hoax”.

Interestingly, Hannoun was photographed in the past with Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Meshaal. As if it wasn’t enough, just three days after the October 7, 2023, massacre, during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Milan, he told the Italian State TV Rai 3 that the attack was “self-defense”. Hannoun also praised on his social media Hamas terrorists such as Yahya Ayyash and Saleh al-Arouri; he called for the assault of Israeli embassies during a street demonstration in Milan and praised the attacks perpetrated by Muslim thugs against the Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in Amsterdam.

In August 2024, after the death of Ismail Haniyeh, Hannoun told Ala News that Hamas and the other Palestinian groups had to respond to his assassination, “to teach Israel a lesson” and to “avenge their leaders”, because Haniyeh “was not Hamas’ leader, but a Palestinian leader”.

It is important to highlight that Hannoun’s problems began years before. In December of 2021, following several reports to the Anti-Money Laundering Office, Unicredit Bank suspended operations on the accounts of the ABSPP, which also has offices in Milan and Rome, due to a series of anomalies. From failure to register in the Revenue Agency register to the massive movement of cash, in some cases to subjects registered on the blacklists of European databases. Despite all this, according to the Italian media, the indictment that the judicial office launched did not lead anywhere due to the lack of verifiable elements in the Palestinian territories.

In July 0f 2023, the Israeli Ministry of Defense asked the Italian police to seize Hannoun’s money. From the investigation conducted by the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, it emerged that 500 thousand euros were available to the individual who, in the past, was accused by Israel, without any criminal repercussions, of hiding financial support to Palestinian suicide bombers. These funds, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, were “the property of, or in any case a reward for, a terrorist organization.” Therefore, “they must be seized”. As explained by the Italian news site “Il Sussidiario”, over the years, and on several occasions, the Italian intelligence services received reports of strange movements of Mohammad Hannoun’s associations, in particular of money.

In March of 2024, as reported by the Italian news site Inkiesta, Hannoun tried to bypass the closure of his accounts first by asking donors to bring cash money directly to his offices in Rome, Milan, and Genoa.

As explained in November 2024, during an interview with the Italian site “Panorama”, by the investigative journalist Massimiliano Coccia, who has been following Hannoun’s movements for many years, the Shin Bet asked the Italian government to intervene against Hannoun, but Rome has never acted. Coccia also added that the Italian authorities’ interest would arise only after his articles on Hannoun were published, noting that this would not be the norm and practice in a normal country (but rather the other way around).

Strangely enough, the association Cupola d’Oro, also linked to Hannoun and sanctioned by the US DOT in June 2025, still appears to be active regardless of the action taken by Washington.

Let’s therefore re-launch the initial question, rightly posed by the author of the Liberoquotidiano article: “What else does Mohammad Hannoun have to say before his expulsion from Italy is considered?”

It’s worth remembering that Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization in the EU, just like ISIS. It is, therefore, unclear why Italian authorities are so quick to take action against individuals spreading pro-ISIS propaganda (the latest just a few days ago in Latina against a person accused of incitement to crime aggravated by terrorism apology), while no measures have yet emerged against the Palestinian strand. Imagine what would have happened if everything Hannoun said and did had been done in support of ISIS.

Using double standards means losing credibility in the fight against terrorism, especially if the country in question already has a precedent such as the so-called “Lodo Moro”, an informal agreement from the early 1970s that allowed Palestinian militants to move freely on Italian soil in exchange for the Palestinians refusing to carry out attacks in Italy against Italian targets. A deal that may have insulated Italy from the violence that plagued other nations across the Mediterranean.

While the 1970s are indeed far behind, the issue of Palestinian extremism and terrorism is still a clear and present issue, even if it is now called “Hamas”. Let’s see how much longer we will have to wait before seeing Italy take action.

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