Washington DC - The US on Friday issued sanctions against three individuals and two France-based charities that it said were part of a network that raised more than $2 million for Palestinian armed group Hamas.

"These designations expose a sophisticated, multi‑year financing architecture that moved more than $2 million to Hamas through deceptive charitable fronts and cryptocurrency channels, demonstrating the organization's persistent ability to adapt its fundraising mechanisms to evade detection," the US Treasury said in a statement.

Those sanctioned include Saleem Abdallah Saleem al-Zaq, identified as a Hamas member who oversees the financial network and works with the group's media office.

Also sanctioned were Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid, linked to the France-based charities Association Baraka and Ensemble C Mieux. Both charities were also named on Friday.

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"Faouzi Barika and Amel Oualid operate from France, where they run purported charities ostensibly to raise money for humanitarian purposes to aid Gazan civilians," the US Treasury said.

It said the network had raised more than $2 million from 2020 to 2026, of which $1.5 million was raised after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel.

That deadly attack provoked a devastating military assault by Israel on Gaza that saw vast swathes of the Palestinian territory reduced to rubble and more than 70,000 people killed, according to official figures that the United Nations says are credible.

Israel's assault prompted worldwide sympathy for the Palestinian cause among people, even if the governments allied with Israel withheld full-throated condemnation.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented 2023 attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The massive Israeli response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 74,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Israeli forces have killed more than 1,400 people since a ceasefire was announced last October, according to Gaza's health ministry.

On Wednesday, Gaza authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed five people, "including a number of children and women," when it hit a minibus.