#US targets Hamas finances with new sanctions

The Treasury Department has imposed an additional round of sanctions aimed at Hamas. 

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the latest rounds of sanctions will target eight Hamas officials and facilitators who have “perpetuate Hamas’s violent agenda by representing the group’s interests abroad and managing its finances,” according to a news release issued Wednesday.

Some identified Hamas officials are based Turkey and Lebanon.

Haroun Mansour Yaqoub Nasser Al-Din is identified by Treasury as the head of the militant group’s office in Jerusalem and a key operative in the group’s financial operations in Turkey, the Treasury noted.

According to the Treasury, Haroun Nasser Al-Din was also involved in a network that transferred funds from Turkey and the Gaza Strip to the Hamas command center in the West Bank city of Hebron. He also worked with Hamas senior official Salih Al-Aruri to “provide financial support to Hamas activities to further unrest in the West Bank.”

Also in Turkey and facing sanctions is Jihad Muhammad Shaker Yaghmour, who the Treasury said is “Hamas’s official representative to Türkiye. He has organized and attended delegations with senior Hamas leaders, and is also involved in handling covert terrorist activities for the group.”

The department also imposed sanctions on Mehmet Kaya, an individual based in Turkey who the U.S. said has helped transfer funds to Hamas, “ultimately providing tens of millions of dollars of financial services.”

Ali Abed Al Rahman Baraka, based in Lebanon, faces sanctions for his role as chief of Hamas’s National Relations Abroad. The department said he previously “held the position of Hamas’s representative to Lebanon where he met with international diplomats based in Lebanon on behalf of Hamas and spoke in support of violent campaigns.”

“Hamas continues to rely heavily on networks of well-placed officials and affiiates, 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,” Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement. 

“We remain focused, as do our allies and partners, on leveraging our collective tools and authorities to degrade Hamas’s ability to fund additional attacks and further destabilize the region.” 

This is the fourth round of sanctions Washington imposed on the militant group since its Oct. 7 attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis.