The list of organizers and donors behind the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza included numerous organizations linked to Hamas, several of which have been designated for funding terrorism.
As detailed in Part One of this series, the Global Sumud Flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli Navy on May 19, 2026, with U.S. Treasury sanctions issued the same day establishing that the operation was organized by groups with direct ties to Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated armed networks.
Part Two examines four of those organizations: the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), Samidoun, Harakat Sawad Misr (HASM), and the Hamas International Relations Bureau.
Established in 2017 and formally active by 2018, the PCPA functions as Hamas’s representative body abroad, operating de facto as Hamas’s overseas embassies. According to the U.S. Treasury, the PCPA was established and managed by operatives from Hamas’s Bureau of International Relations, then led by Mousa Abu Marzook. Hamas provided $100,000 to fund the inaugural PCPA meeting and controls the organization’s strategic and tactical activity by placing Hamas-linked figures in key positions throughout the organization. On January 21, 2026, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the PCPA as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.
Two documented examples are Adel Saad al-Din Hassan Doughman, one of Hamas’s most prominent representatives in Europe, and Majid Khalil Moussa al-Zeer, both of whom were designated by the U.S. Treasury on October 7, 2024. OFAC designated the PCPA and its senior official, Zaher Birawi, on January 21, 2026, as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for being owned, directed by, or acting on behalf of Hamas. The designation filing explicitly identified the PCPA as “a main organizer of recent flotillas that sought to break Israel’s security cordon around Gaza.”
Birawi, a Palestinian-British journalist and activist, moved to the United Kingdom in the early 1990s and became involved with the Muslim Brotherhood. From 2001 to 2003, he served as president of the Muslim Association of Britain, which was founded by Hamas operative Muhammad Sawalha. Israel designated Birawi as a Hamas operative in 2013.
In September 2025, Israel released Hamas documents recovered in Gaza that it said proved Hamas’s direct involvement in funding and organizing the flotilla through the PCPA and Birawi. One document reportedly referred to Birawi as the head of the PCPA’s Hamas sector in Britain.
In 2023, UK Labour MP Christian Wakeford used parliamentary privilege to identify Birawi as one of four “senior Hamas operatives” active in the United Kingdom, calling it “a serious national security risk for Hamas operatives to be living here in London.”
On May 19, 2026, OFAC sanctioned Global Sumud Flotilla steering committee member and PCPA General Secretariat member Saif Abukeshek, chief executive of the Spanish shell company Cyber Neptune, which owns dozens of the vessels used in the flotilla, along with PCPA acting General Secretary and president Hisham Abu Mahfuz.
The PCPA also ran the “Brotherhood Day” fundraising campaign on Ensany, a Malaysian Islamic crowdfunding platform operated jointly with Wijdan Charity, processing payments through PayPal. As of the review date, the campaign had raised more than $71,000, with PayPal still processing donations for the PCPA despite OFAC’s January 2026 designation.
Samidoun was co-founded in 2011 by American Charlotte Kates and her husband, Palestinian-Canadian Khaled Barakat, a PFLP member later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. Israel’s Ministry of Defense states that Samidoun was “founded by members of the PFLP” and that Barakat, identified by the PFLP as its “coordinator,” was involved in establishing militant cells and promoting terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria and abroad.
The organization presents itself as a Palestinian prisoner solidarity network but functions as a front for the PFLP in countries where the group is designated a terrorist organization. As of February 2019, Barakat was a member of the PFLP’s Central Committee and a founder of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil), launched in October 2021. In October 2022, the Netherlands banned Barakat from the European Union, and he and Kates were deported to Canada.
Kates, Samidoun’s international coordinator, claims to have met in South Africa with Hamas leaders including Basem Naim, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In August 2024, she traveled to Tehran to accept a “human rights” award from the Iranian regime at an event honoring Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Samidoun’s Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib is described in Palestinian media as a PFLP member. In 2018, Israeli authorities arrested Belgian Samidoun activist Mustapha Awad, accusing him of receiving Hezbollah training and wiring money to Barakat from Lebanon and Syria at the PFLP’s direction.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense designated Samidoun a terrorist organization in February 2021. Germany banned all Samidoun activities in November 2023, dissolved its German branch, which also operated as “HIRAK – Palestinian Youth Mobilization,” and raided 15 properties across four states. The United States and Canada jointly designated Samidoun as a terrorist entity in October 2024.
In January 2026, Germany ordered internet providers including Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone to block Samidoun’s website, citing antisemitic propaganda, calls for violence, and denial of Israel’s right to exist. On May 19, 2026, OFAC sanctioned Samidoun’s Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib and Madrid coordinator Jaldia Abubakra for leadership roles in the flotilla.
In an October 2025 interview, Khatib said that after Palestine is “freed” from the river to the sea, efforts should turn toward the “liberation” of the United States, Canada, Australia, and other Western countries.
Harakat Sawad Misr (“Arms of Egypt Movement”), known by the acronym HASM, is a militant group linked to the banned Muslim Brotherhood that was formed in Egypt in 2015 with the goal of overthrowing the Egyptian government. Egyptian authorities describe HASM as the Brotherhood’s armed wing, responsible for attacks on police, judges, and infrastructure between 2016 and 2018.
HASM was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in January 2018 and elevated to a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department in January 2021. Two HASM leaders, Yahya al-Sayyid Ibrahim Musa and Alaa Ali Ali Mohammed al-Samahi, both based in Turkey, were designated alongside the FTO listing.
Documented HASM attacks include the 2016 attempted assassination of Egypt’s former Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the 2017 assassination of National Security Agency officer Ibrahim Azzazy, a 2017 attack on Myanmar’s embassy in Cairo, a 2019 Giza car bomb that killed or wounded 10 soldiers, and a Cairo car bombing targeting a government health institute that killed at least 20 people.
The HASM link to the flotilla emerged in the same OFAC action that sanctioned the flotilla’s organizers on May 19, 2026. Three individuals tied to the Hamas-HASM network were sanctioned.
One was Karim Sayed Ahmed Moghny, a Hamas operative who, between 2021 and 2025, built networks targeting Israeli interests, directed militant activity, and provided covert operations training. Another was Muhammad Jamal Hassan Al-Najjar, a Hamas operative who worked with HASM member Sherif Ahmed Ewis Ahmed to acquire explosives and plan attacks involving designated HASM leader Yahya al-Sayyid Ibrahim Musa. The third was Sherif Ahmed Ewis Ahmed, who was designated to act on behalf of HASM.
The State Department stated: “Today’s action exposes how Hamas exploits diaspora organizations, religious institutions, and purported civil society groups to advance its malign agenda while claiming humanitarian objectives. Hamas uses these enablers to sustain its position in Gaza, finance its operations, and engage in terrorist violence beyond its borders.”
The Hamas International Relations Bureau is Hamas’s external arm responsible for overseas political influence, fundraising, and front-group operations. As of 2023, Mousa Abu Marzook served as its head. He was chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from 1992 to 1996 and deputy chairman from 1997 to 2013. During that period, he oversaw Hamas operations from Northern Virginia, where U.S. officials said up to 15 percent of Hamas’s $70 million annual budget originated in the United States. In April 2021, Hamas elected Marzook deputy chair of its diaspora office under Khaled Mashal.
On April 19, 2018, Ismail Haniyeh signed a letter authorizing the expansion of Hamas’s international outreach, the framework under which the Bureau established the PCPA as an overseas instrument. Treasury stated that the PCPA “operates in accordance with Hamas directives and was established and managed by operatives from Hamas’s Bureau of International Relations.” Treasury further described Hamas’s use of civilian organizations as “insidious,” stating it “endangers Palestinians and undermines efforts to build a lasting and prosperous peace.”
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