PARIS — The charity called itself Pearl of Hope, and its appeals on social media featured poignant images of wounded children and calls for donations to promote the health and education of sick Syrian and Palestinian toddlers.

“Syria needs us and we need you,” says one of its exhortations for charity.

But in November, after months of surveillance, the charity was shut down. Now two of its senior leaders, Nabil Ouerfelli, 22, and Yasmine Znaidi, 34, have become the first members of an Islamic charity in France to be charged with financing terrorism since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Mr. Ouerfelli, prosecutors said, was also suspected of fighting for a jihadist group in Syria. Three other members of the charity were arrested in late November but were later released.

Pearl of Hope is among several charities in Europe suspected of links to terrorist groups at a time when the shifting alliances among the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad of Syria have made it difficult to distinguish between legitimate humanitarian groups and those abetting terrorists, law enforcement officials and terrorism experts said.