Usama Ali, an alleged leader, financier, and member of Hamas's executive team, purportedly runs the terror group's financial office. He is also a Canadian.

Ali is among approximately 450 people with Hamas ties — including permanent residents and those with family or associates — connected to Canada, according to a Global News exposé.

Though the number of Hamas operatives in Canada has likely fallen since the attack on Israel, it remains significant, including the top leader. CSIS informed Global it is investigating Canadians in Middle East terror groups but offered no details.

Ali, a Lebanese national and alleged head of the Turkey-based Hamas Investment Office (HIO) since 2017, reportedly used three Canadian passports according to 2022 U.S. sanctions. His current whereabouts and Canadian details are unknown.

Hamas's investment office, initially in Saudi Arabia and later in Turkey, amassed an estimated US$500 million in assets, including construction and real estate firms across Africa and the Middle East. Per the Treasury Department, these businesses concealed funds, generated revenue, and financed Hamas.

Although officially uninvolved, Ali allegedly coordinated financial transfers to Hamas through companies where his deputy, Hisham Younis Yahia Qafisheh (a Jordanian), held key roles. Qafisheh was deputy chair of the Turkish development company Trend GYO (which denies supporting Hamas) and also chaired/directed development companies in Sudan.

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The Treasury stated the Hamas investment office also secretly held assets in companies in Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. A substantial part of these funds went to the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing that spearheaded the Oct. 7 attack.

In 2019, Ali joined Hamas's Shura Council, which elects executives and sets strategies, and the Executive Committee, the main decision-making body led by Ismail Haniyeh, according to the U.S. and Israel. Israeli authorities alleged Ali “maintained direct contact with senior Hamas leaders,” including Haniyeh, deputy chief Salih al-Aruri, and financial official Zahar Jabarin.

Following the October 2023 attack, the Treasury Department sanctioned Hamas's investment wing and financial facilitators. These investment network companies operated as legitimate businesses, concealing Hamas's control. 

Top leadership directed this network, enabling senior officials to live lavishly while average Gazans struggled. However, Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran (July 2024) and al-Aruri was killed in Beirut. There has been no public notice of Ali's death as of publication.

However, not everyone named allegedly held executive roles within Hamas, including Omar Alkassab, a house painter who came to Winnipeg in 2016 as a Syrian refugee.

In an anti-Hamas financing crackdown, Israeli authorities seized roughly 600 digital “wallets” tied to a Dubai exchange. One was traced to Canada, allegedly belonging to Alkassab.

Alkassab, from Al-Bab, Syria, was a Coca Cola delivery driver in Aleppo, per immigration records. A now-deleted LinkedIn account stated he was a project manager for Omar’s Helping Hands, a humanitarian group, and “rescued people buried under rubble from airstrikes” in Syria.

After three years in Winnipeg, he applied for Canadian citizenship in 2019 and passed the test in 2021, but he is still awaiting a decision.

The specifics of the Gaza crypto account and why a Manitoba resident needed a Palestinian territory crypto wallet are unknown. Given Hamas has been Gaza's de facto government for nearly two decades, resident interaction was likely necessary.

The Canadian government began investigating Alkassab in May 2022, a month after Israel seized his crypto wallet, internal documents reveal. His citizenship application is now suspended as four federal agencies review his background, according to Federal Court records released to Global News.

On January 16, 2025, CSIS's Security Screening Branch sent immigration officials a redacted assessment about Alkassab's Gaza crypto wallet. The report cited publicly available data from Israel's counter-terrorism unit, identifying Alkassab as the owner of a Binance wallet allegedly belonging to the designated terrorist group, Dubai Company for Exchange in the Gaza Strip.

Alkassab sued the government over his delayed citizenship, claiming he was baffled as to why it was stalled. He stated he has no criminal record, hasn't served in any military or “organizations,” and was unaware of any investigations against him.

Hamas, a listed terrorist entity in Canada, is defined by Public Safety Canada as a “radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization.” All support for or participation in the group's activities is illegal.

“The government of Canada must act urgently to confront the threat posed by Hamas-linked individuals, both to prevent attacks on Canadian soil and to ensure Canada is not exploited to facilitate terrorism abroad,” said Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

“Participation in a banned terrorist group must bring real consequences. Canadians deserve to be protected from terrorist threats.”

The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals, including eight Canadians.

The Israeli counter-offensive in Gaza has reportedly killed tens of thousands and included airstrikes targeting Hamas leadership in Lebanon, Iran, and Qatar.