Gaza Conflict: US, Britain impose more sanctions on Hamas officials

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the United States and Britain on Wednesday slapped new penalties on individuals in Turkey and abroad who have ties to the violent Palestinian organisation Hamas. According to a statement from the Treasury, the penalties are aimed at eight individuals who support Hamas’ goals and objectives overseas and assist in handling its finances. “Hamas continues to rely heavily on networks of well-placed officials and affiliates, exploiting seemingly permissive jurisdictions to direct fundraising campaigns for the group’s benefit and funneling those illicit proceeds to support its military activities in Gaza,” said Brian Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Treasury added that a number of the Hamas executives targeted were headquartered in Turkey, including Haroun Mansour Yaqoub Nasser Al-Din, one of the organization’s principal financial operatives in that country. It said that Haroun Nasser Al-Din was a part of a network that sent funds to the Hamas headquarters in Hebron, a West Bank city, from Gaza and Turkey, and that this helped fund Hamas operations aimed at escalating instability in the region. Nelson ended November by visiting Oman and Turkey as part of US efforts to block the flow of money to and from Hamas and other organisations. In a synchronised move on Wednesday, the British Foreign Office announced that it had sanctioned seven more individuals associated with Hamas, including the organization’s co-founder Mahmoud Zahar and its head of external relations, Ali Baraka, who had previously been sanctioned by the US. A head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organisation and other participants in the Hamas-supporting financial network, including people in Lebanon and Algeria, are also the targets of the UK sanctions. “Hamas can have no future in Gaza. Today’s sanctions on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad will continue to cut off their access to funding and isolate them further,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said. “We call on the American administration and the British government once again to review their aggressive policies towards our Palestinian people,” Hamas said in a statement. Following the terrorist group from Palestine’s fatal incursion into Israel on October 7, which Israel claims resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, Washington earlier placed three rounds of sanctions on the group. Ismail Musa Ahmad Barhum, who assisted in transferring funds from international fundraising into Hamas finance ministry accounts, and Jihad Muhammad Shaker Yaghmour, Hamas’ official representative in Turkey, were among the other individuals named by the US. Mehmet Kaya, who is also headquartered in Turkey, was the focus of the penalties due to his many money transfers that he made on behalf of Hamas, “ultimately providing tens of millions of dollars of financial services for Hamas,” according to the statement. (With agency inputs)