The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a group of 10 Hamas members and the Palestinian militant organization’s financial network across Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar in response to the surprise attack on Israel that left more than 1,000 people dead or kidnapped.
Targeted for sanctions by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control are members who manage a Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, a Hamas commander and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. “is taking swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s financiers and facilitators following its brutal and unconscionable massacre of Israeli civilians, including children.”
“The U.S. Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas,” she said in an emailed statement.
The sanctions are financial penalties meant to block access to funds held in the U.S. and to prevent the people and entities from doing business with American people and firms.
“Hamas alone is responsible for the carnage its militants have inflicted on the people of Israel, and it should immediately release all hostages in its custody,” Blinken said. “The United States will not relent in using all the tools at our disposal to disrupt Hamas terrorist activity.”
A Hamas financier and several operatives were sanctioned, the Treasury Department said. Also, a Qatar-based Hamas operative and a Hamas military relations commander, who is believed to have been killed in an airstrike on Tuesday, were sanctioned for having acted on behalf of Hamas, the U.S. said. Additionally, a Gaza-based company that provides money transfer and virtual currency exchange services was hit with sanctions, as was its owner.
