PANews reported on August 28 that according to Cointelegraph, Ray Youssef, co-founder of P2P encryption platform Paxful and CEO of Noones P2P platform, revealed that the encryption exchange Binance seized cryptocurrencies from Palestinians at the request of Israel and handed them over to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
"Binance has seized all Palestinian funds at the request of the IDF. They refuse to return the funds. All appeals have been rejected," Youssef wrote in the X post, citing multiple sources, including a letter from Israeli authorities that Binance passed on. He believes the measure affects all Palestinians and predicts that other countries such as Lebanon and Syria may follow suit.
In response, Binance said that the platform only restricted certain Palestinian accounts involved in illegal activities. A Binance spokesperson said: "There are some incorrect statements about this matter. Only a few user accounts related to illegal funds are prohibited from trading." The Binance spokesperson also pointed out that Binance "complies with internationally recognized sanctions regulations like any other financial institution" and "most importantly, we hope for lasting peace throughout the region."
