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US Offers Up to $10 Million for Information on Hezbollah’s Financial Networks in Latin America
The aftermath of the bombing of the AMIA building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994. Photo: File.
The US State Department is offering rewards for information on Hezbollah’s financial networks in Latin America, with a particular focus on the Tri-Border Area — where Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil intersect and illicit activity is known to thrive.
In a statement released Monday, the department’s Rewards for Justice program announced it is offering up to $10 million for information that disrupts “the financial mechanisms of the terrorist organization.”
The Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group “generates about $1 billion annually from a combination of direct financial support from Iran, international businesses and investments, donor networks, corruption and money laundering activities,” the statement reads.
Hizballah operates in regions far from its base in Lebanon, including in South America.
If you have information on Hizballah smuggling, money laundering, or other financial mechanisms in the Tri-Border Area, contact us. You could be eligible for a reward and relocation. pic.twitter.com/dYFq1gwQB3
— Rewards for Justice (@RFJ_USA) May 19, 2025
Among other activities, the US alleges that the terror group funds its operations through money laundering, drug trafficking, smuggling charcoal and oil, illegal diamond trading, document forgery, counterfeiting US dollars, and trafficking large amounts of cash, cigarettes, and luxury goods across the three countries, the US alleges.
According to the department’s spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, the US government is requesting information on businesses or investments linked to Hezbollah or its financial facilitators, front companies involved in procuring dual-use technology for the terrorist group, and criminal activities by Hezbollah members and supporters that help fund their operations.
Iran is the chief international backer of Hezbollah, as well as the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and Yemen’s Houthi militants, providing these Islamist groups with weapons, funding, and training.
The US officially designated Hezbollah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997 and later as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group in 2001, while Iran was classified as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984.
The Tri-Border Area in South America has long been regarded as a financial hub for Hezbollah operatives and continues to be a hotspot for organized crime across the region.
Argentina experienced the two deadliest terrorist attacks in the region — the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy and the 1994 attack on the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires — both of which Argentine authorities attribute to Hezbollah, with support and direction from Iran.
In April, the lead prosecutor in the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center bombing case petitioned Argentina’s federal court to issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over his alleged involvement in the terrorist attack.
Sebastián Basso — who succeeded former prosecutor Alberto Nisman after his murder in 2015 — argued that Khamenei was directly involved in planning the 1994 AMIA bombing — the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina’s history, in which 85 people were killed and more than 300 wounded.
In 2006, Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and the regime’s chief proxy, Hezbollah, for carrying it out. Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
Last year, Argentina’s second-highest court ruled that the 1994 attack in Buenos Aires was “organized, planned, financed, and executed under the direction of the authorities of the Islamic State of Iran, within the framework of Islamic Jihad.” The court also said that the bombing was carried out by Hezbollah terrorists responding to “a political and strategic design” by Tehran.
The court additionally ruled that Iran had been responsible for the 1992 truck bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people.
The post US Offers Up to $10 Million for Information on Hezbollah’s Financial Networks in Latin America first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.