A new front has emerged in Israel’s fight against the funding of Iran-backed groups from Hamas to Hezbollah: A fast-growing crypto network called Tron, Reuters reports.
Quicker and cheaper than its larger rival Bitcoin, Tron has overtaken its rival as a platform for crypto transfers associated with groups designated as terror organisations by Israel, the United States, and other countries, according to interviews with seven financial crime experts and blockchain investigations specialists.
A Reuters’ analysis of crypto seizures announced by Israeli security services since 2021 reflects the trend, showing for the first time a sharp rise in the targeting of Tron wallets and a fall in Bitcoin wallet seizures.
“Earlier it was Bitcoin and now our data shows that these terrorist organisations tend to increasingly favor Tron,” said Mriganka Pattnaik, CEO of New York-based blockchain analysis firm Merkle Science, citing Tron’s faster transaction times, low fees, and stability.
Merkle Science says it counts law enforcement agencies in the United States, Britain, and Singapore as clients.
Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF), which is responsible for such seizures, froze 143 Tron wallets between July 2021 and October 2023 that it believed were connected to a “designated terrorist organisation” or used for a “severe terror crime,” the Reuters analysis found.
About 1,000 Palestinians who were stranded outside the Gaza Strip when conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas have returned home during the seven-day truce, braving the prospect of renewed bombardment, a Palestinian border official has said, Reuters reports.
At the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, yellow taxis with suitcases and cardboard boxes piled high on their roofs and trunks so full of luggage they could not be closed were carrying Palestinians back into their ravaged homeland.
One of them was Abu Nader, who said he had travelled to Turkey on Oct. 4 to accompany one of his daughters who was starting her studies there. The conflict began three days later, when Hamas attacked southern Israel.
Abu Nader flew to Egypt on Oct. 24 but could not return to Gaza as the Rafah crossing was closed. He found himself stuck in Egypt until the truce.
He said his house in the al-Nasser neighbourhood in Gaza City had been destroyed by an Israeli strike and he had lost relatives, but was nevertheless desperate to get home to be with his other children and the rest of his family.
“No one leaves their children or their country, even if they lose their house. All Palestine is my home, not just Gaza or the house in al-Nasser, the whole nation is my home,” he said.
People in southern Lebanon who fled last month have rushed home to inspect damage during the temporary truce in the conflict between Israel and Hamas that they hope will end the worst border clashes in nearly 20 years, Reuters reports.
Some 200 km (124 miles) from the Gaza Strip in southern Lebanon, people in areas scarred by Israeli shelling were grateful that they had been able to return home since Friday when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect.
“We are very happy to have returned to the village,” Mbadda Salloum, a resident from the village of Yaroun, said outside a church damaged in the recent hostilities.
He had fled north with his family to the capital, Beirut. “We wish for this truce to be permanent, God willing.” Many families are using the pause in fighting to collect belongings from their homes and survey damage. Schools and most shops are shut.
About 55,500 people across southern Lebanon had fled their homes as of Nov. 21, according to the United Nations. Many also fled their homes in northern Israel.
“They have missed their homes and their lands,” said Kassem Jaber, mayor of the village of Mhaibib. People had been waiting on the village outskirts till just after 7 am last Friday when the truce took effect, he said, then rushed back to their homes.
An investigation has uncovered that the use of an artificial intelligence system to generate potential targets has contributed to the destructive nature of the conflict including bombing civilian targets, +972 magazine reports.
“The probe by +972 and Local Call is based on conversations with seven current and former members of Israel’s intelligence community in addition to Palestinian testimonies, data, and documentation from the Gaza Strip, and official statements by the IDF Spokesperson and other Israeli state institutions,” the report said.
“These factors, as described by current and former Israeli intelligence members, have likely played a role in producing what has been one of the deadliest military campaigns against Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948,” it added.
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French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed his ‘great joy’ upon the release of a Franco-Israeli woman who was held hostage in Gaza, saying Paris will keep working towards the release of those still detained by Hamas, AFP reports.
The freed hostage, 21-year-old Mia Schem, was seized at a dance party along with many of the other hostages abducted into Gaza. Schem also holds French nationality.
“I share this great joy with her family and all French people”, Macron said in a statement on X.
