By Brett Rowland | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – U.S. officials slapped sanctions on 10 Hamas members Wednesday after attacks on Israel.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions Hamas members, operatives and financial backers in Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar.
Officials said the OFAC designations were part of an ongoing effort to root out revenue sources for Hamas in the West Bank, Gaza and across the region.
“The United States is taking swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s financiers and facilitators following its brutal and unconscionable massacre of Israeli civilians, including children,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “The U.S. Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas.”
As a result of the designation, all property and interests of the named people that are in the U.S. must be blocked and reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50% or more by one or more blocked persons also are blocked, according to the agency. Further, the designation cuts those people off from many financial services because anyone who helps a sanctioned person could face sanctions
Treasury has targeted nearly 1,000 people and entities connected to terrorism and terrorist financing by the Iranian regime and its proxies, including Hamas, Hizballah, and other Iran-aligned terrorist groups in the region, according to the agency.
OFAC sanctioned six people associated with Hamas’s secret investment portfolio, two senior Hamas officials, and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange and its operator.