The U.S. Treasury Department has announced a new round of sanctions targeting Hamas-linked representatives and organizations in its efforts to cut off the terrorist group’s funding following its brutal assault on Israel.
“Today’s action underscores the United States’ commitment to dismantling Hamas’s funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.
“We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas’s ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added that the new entities also highlight the critical role Iran plays in supporting Hamas financially, logistically, and operationally.
Among the newly targeted individuals are Khaled Qaddoumi, a Jordanian national who serves as Hamas’s representative to Iran, as well as several members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force who train and assist Hamas terrorists.
The Gaza-based Al-Ansar Charity Association for the families of Hamas and PIJ militants was also sanctioned, as were three investment companies owned by Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Mohamed Khair, a Sudan-based Hamas financier designated under the last round of sanctions announced on Oct. 18.
The federal actions follow Hamas’s massacre of 1,400 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Fatalities included hundreds of foreign nationals, including 34 Americans, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel responded to the attack with a declaration of war and an ongoing counteroffensive targeting Hamas’s infrastructure and activity in Gaza.
The Hamas terrorist organization controls Gaza.
While the reliability of the Gaza Health Ministry’s data has been called into question after a dispute over a hospital explosion last week, the ministry claims at least 6,747 Palestinians have been killed in the onslaught.
Meanwhile, according to the Israel Defense Forces, at least 224 people are still being held hostage by Hamas.
On Oct. 20, the group released its first hostages, American woman Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie. The Evanston, Illinois, residents had traveled to Israel to celebrate the Jewish holidays and the 85th birthday of Natalie’s grandmother when they were taken captive during the Oct. 7 attack.
On Oct. 23, the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed the release of two more hostages, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, who had been kidnapped at the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz. Their 83-year-old and 85-year-old husbands remain hostage in Gaza.
While in Israel last week, President Joe Biden noted that the United States was working with Israeli authorities to secure the safe release of hostages. He also pledged the United States’ continued support for Israel in its mission to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel was born to be a safe place for the Jewish people of the world. … And while it may not feel that way today, Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be.”
