An Italian court ordered the pretrial detention of nine Hamas operatives, justifying its decision by explicitly highlighting the arrestees’ commitment to Islamist ideology, antisemitism, and support for acts of terrorism against the State of Israel.
The December 26 court order issued by Judge Silvia Carpanini described Hamas as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, “committed to creating an Islamic state in Palestine according to Sharia law,” while “rejecting any peaceful solution” and “declaring jihad as the only way to liberation.”
Because of their ideological commitments, coupled with the likelihood that the arrestees would continue to engage in criminal acts, the judge ruled that “only detention … can constitute a real impediment to the continuation of the criminal conduct.”
“Therefore, the precautionary measure of detention in prison must be ordered for all the suspects,” she declared.
Legislators across Europe need to take heed, study the court order, and draw the necessary conclusions.
The detailed judgment drew praise from Tomas Sandell, director of the European Coalition for Israel. “The Italian judiciary has done a great favor to the current European political debate by connecting the dots between the current rise in antisemitism and political Islam, one of the main extremist ideologies that is fueling Jew-hatred,” Sandell told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI). “Legislators across Europe need to take heed, study the court order, and draw the necessary conclusions.”
Law enforcement agencies arrested nine suspects including top Hamas leader Mohammad Hannoun on December 27, 2025. Police charged the suspects with using three Italian charities to funnel seven million euros of aid money to Hamas-linked associations, Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) reported. Officials said that the cash was also used “to provide support for the families of persons involved in terrorist attacks or those detained for terrorist crimes.”
Notably, the Genoa court’s 306-page order uses primary sources—including Hamas’s founding covenant, the Qur’an, and the Hadith—to establish a comprehensive link between the theological underpinnings of political Islam and jihadi organizations with animosity toward Jews and terrorism against Israel.
Palestine Is Perpetual Islamic Territory
The order emphasizes that the Hamas Covenant frames its anti-Israel “struggle as religious rather than political,” claiming Palestine based on Hamas’s theological outlook is an Islamic waqf, belonging permanently to Muslims. Palestine is “a land subject to the dominion of Islam,” hence “it is the duty of every Muslim to oppose and annihilate the enemy who treads on this land.”
It is significant, Carpanini notes, that there are “no political proclamations, but two articles of exclusively religious inspiration” listed in the charter’s “Objectives.” In fact, Hamas’s Covenant makes it explicit that “Allah is its goal, the Prophet is its model, the Quran its constitution: Jihad is its way and death for the love of Allah is its highest desire.”
“The premise is always religious in nature: Palestine is a holy land, the issue is of universal interest to Muslims, and everyone must contribute to the effort for its liberation,” she adds. “Hamas, therefore, explicitly states that, for purely religious reasons (Palestine is an Islamic waqf), it must be governed by an Islamic state and is therefore subject to Sharia.”
Hamas also excludes the legitimacy of any nonreligious (secular) government and the creation of a secular or even non-Islamist state in Palestine, since it views secularism as a threat to Islamic values, the Genoa court order stresses.
The judge explains how Article 13 expressly states that any peace negotiation or international treaty is ruled out because Hamas clearly affirms: “There is no solution to the Palestinian question except through Jihad,” which is an “individual obligation for liberating Palestine.”
Islamist Antisemitism Rooted in Islamic Eschatology
Hamas’s original charter (1988) is “widely and clearly antisemitic” and reeks of an antisemitism based on classic conspiracy theories by making continuous references to the existence of a Jewish power which has extended its tentacles into every field and can influence governments and international agencies, with the ultimate aim of world domination, the order notes.
The order explains that Hamas’s antisemitism is rooted in Islamic eschatology, which is based on a Hadith that calls for the killing of Jews before Judgment Day. “Jews must be exterminated, as they are an obstacle to the arrival of the Day of Judgment,” Carpanini writes, citing a speech by Fathi Hamad, Hamas’ Interior Minister in Gaza.
While Hamas’s second declaration (2017) claims that it is combating “Zionists” rather than “Jews,” subsequent statements from Hamas leaders abandon “the pretense of distinguishing between Zionist enemies and Jews,” she adds. Jews are legitimate targets to be eliminated, not only in Israel, but in any part of the world.
Citing a seized video cassette, the order demonstrates how children were brainwashed into jihad. The video depicts a group of masked children with black clothes and green bands on their foreheads, on which is written: “There is no God but Allah.” The children hold toy rocket launchers and rifles and dance to a song with the lyrics: “I prepare myself for the Jihad.”
Brotherhood’s Goal of an Islamic State in Palestine
The judge did the world a favor by debunking the myth of the Palestinian movement being rooted in humanitarian concerns—and not anti-Israelism and antisemitism—in such a well-documented and authoritative ruling, Sandell told FWI. The court’s judgement is “further validated by the complete silence from the same Palestinian movement in the face of the brutal massacres of civilian Iranians by the Islamic Republic,” he said.
Meanwhile, Carpanini also linked the Muslim Brotherhood with Hamas, warning that the MB has as its goal the overthrow of governments in Muslim countries that do not apply Sharia, as well as expanding Islam globally “as a totalitarian system” by means of violent jihad.
In the case of Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood created a network of financing and logistics to support military operations against the State of Israel, to achieve the original goals of the association, which is the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine.
“The investigation that led to the arrest of Hannoun and his network has opened a Pandora’s box, as it exposed a long-standing financial network that investigators are still working to fully unravel,” Giovanni Giacalone, an Italian expert in terrorism and counterterrorism at the David Institute for Security Policy, told (FWI).
“The money flow had been going on for years, and so had Hannoun’s propaganda activity in mosques and streets. It cannot be ruled out that the investigation may expand, not only in Italy but across Europe,” Giacalone said.
