The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement the new sanctions are aimed at eight individuals in Turkey and elsewhere who represent Hamas interests abroad and manage their 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, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Treasury identified one of the key Hamas financial operatives in Turkey as Haroun Mansour Yaqoub Nasser Al-Din, contending he has been involved in a network that transferred money from Turkey and Gaza to the Hamas command center in the West Bank city of Hebron to further unrest in the West Bank.
The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets the Hamas operatives might hold in the U.S. and block them from making future transactions with American and British interests.
The U.S. and Britain earlier imposed three rounds of sanctions on Hamas after its deadly incursion into Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and allowed the militants to seize about 240 hostages. In its retaliatory offensive attempting to end Hamas rule of Gaza, Israel has killed more than 18,000 people in the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea.
Both the U.S. and Britain classify Hamas as a terrorist group.
The U.K. sanctions also target a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and figures in the financial network that backs Hamas, including individuals in Lebanon and Algeria.
"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.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the sanctions were unjustified and Hamas later said they were based on false allegations.
"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.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen welcomed the latest sanctions and called on other countries to follow suit, "as only a persistent uncompromising struggle will lead to the collapse of the Hamas government."
Others cited by the United States include Ismail Musa Ahmad Barhum, who helped to collect money from global fundraising into Hamas finance ministry accounts, the Treasury Department said, and Jihad Muhammad Shaker Yaghmour, Hamas' official representative to Turkey.
This article originates from VOA News. Some information came from Reuters.
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