President Joe Biden, who arrived in the Middle East late Tuesday to show support for Israel, has tried to tamp down tensions in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas, but those efforts have faced massive setbacks, including a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital that killed about 500 people.
Targeted for Wednesday’s sanctions action by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control are members who manage a Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, a key Hamas commander and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US “is taking swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s financiers and facilitators following its brutal and unconscionable massacre of Israeli civilians, including children.”
“The US Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas,” she said.
Brian Nelson, US Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and illicit finance, said at a Deloitte anti-money laundering conference Tuesday that the US is renewing its plans to pursue Hamas funding streams and made a call for American allies and the private sector to do the same or “be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
“We cannot, and we will not, tolerate money flowing through the international system for Hamas’ terrorist activity,” Nelson said.
“We want to partner with all willing countries and financial entities to stop Hamas financing,” he said “but to the extent that any institution or jurisdiction fails to take appropriate action, they should then be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the Oct. 7 assault on Israel was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and the growth of settlements, among other reasons.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message. He said the attack was only the start of what he called Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, and he called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight.
Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should impose an oil embargo and other sanctions on Israel and expel all Israeli ambassadors, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday.
An urgent meeting of the OIC is taking place in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after a blast at a Gaza hospital late on Tuesday killed large numbers of Palestinians.
“The foreign minister calls for an immediate and complete embargo on Israel by Islamic countries, including oil sanctions, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors if relations with the Zionist regime have been established,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Amirabdollahian also called for the formation of a team of Islamic lawyers to document potential war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.
Iran has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
Prior to the blast at the Gaza hospital on Tuesday, health authorities in Gaza said at least
3,000 people had died during Israel’s 11-day bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,300 people were killed and around 200 were taken into Gaza as hostages.
