US slaps fresh sanctions on six senior Hamas officials

Washington imposed sanctions on six senior Hamas officials, the US Treasury Department said Tuesday, in further action against the Palestinian terror group as Washington has sought to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the terror group’s representatives abroad, a senior member of its military wing, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts and weapons smuggling into Gaza.

“Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza,” Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.

“Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas’s efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account.”

Among those targeted was Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas’s military wing who is now based in Turkey, the Treasury said. It accused him of being involved in “multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks,” including the 1997 Café Apropo bombing in Tel Aviv.

Ghanimat was previously sentenced to five life sentences in prison but was one of 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held at the time by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Two other Hamas officials based in Turkey were also among those targeted by the sanctions, the Treasury said, charging that Musa Daud Muhammad Akari and Salama Mari had been involved in facilitating the transfer of funds from Turkey “into Gaza and the West Bank for Hamas.”

Akari was previously convicted by Israel for taking part in the 1992 murder of Israeli police officer Nissim Toledano. He was released from prison as part of the Shalit deal in 2011.

The US warned Turkey on Monday against hosting Hamas leadership after it was reported that the terror group’s senior members had relocated there from Qatar, warning that American allies and partners should not harbor leaders of a terror organization.

Ankara has denied that it has become the new base of Hamas’s politburo operations although Qatar said Tuesday that the Hamas leaders involved in negotiations for a hostage release-ceasefire deal with Israel were “not in Doha” anymore.

In addition to the three Turkey-based Hamas officials, the US Treasury Department said that it was imposing sanctions on Gaza-based officials Basem Naim and Ghazi Hamad.

It charged that Naim has “participated in Hamas’s engagements with Russia and been a part of Hamas delegations to other countries,” while Hamad has “served as the editor of Hamas propaganda outlets and is authorized to speak publicly on behalf of Hamas.”

Hamad was also involved in the past with overseeing Gaza’s border crossings, which the Treasury said were “one of the primary ways Hamas smuggled weapons into Gaza,” and were also used by the terror group to smuggle in the equipment it used to build its “extensive tunnel network they intentionally interspersed among Palestinian civilians.”

The final Hamas official included in Tuesday’s sanctions list was Mohammed Nazzal, whom the Treasury said has “provided support to the terrorist group for over 30 years.

Nazzal, who has previously lived in both Jordan and Syria, is a senior leader on Hamas’s Council on International Relations, the Treasury said.

The sanctions freeze any US-based assets owned or controlled by the named individuals. They also block financial transactions with those designated and prohibit the contribution of funds, goods and services to them.

Tuesday’s action marked the ninth time that the Treasury has imposed sanctions on Hamas entities and backers since the October 7, 2023 terror onslaught enacted by the group in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages.

Most recently, on October 7, 2024, the Treasury imposed sanctions on a “sham charity” in Italy that it said had been fundraising for the Palestinian terror group, and on two senior Hamas representatives in Europe — one in Germany and the other in Austria.

Source » timesofisrael.com