The goal is to cut off their access to funds.
The Department of the Treasury announced a series of new sanctions against the terror group Hamas on Wednesday intended to disrupt its financial operations. The sanctions targeted ten members of the organization, Hamas operatives, and financial facilities in Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria, and Qatar.
The sanctions specifically focus on “members managing assets in a secret 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 and its operator.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated, “We will continue to take all steps necessary to deny Hamas terrorists the ability to raise and use funds to carry out atrocities and terrorize the people of Israel. That includes by imposing sanctions and coordinating with allies and partners to track, freeze, and seize any Hamas-related assets in their jurisdictions.”
A senior Treasury official said, “What we’re doing today is we’re cutting them off from access to their money. War costs money, and fundamentally by making sure that these networks and finances don’t have the ability to give that money to Hamas, it will mean that they have fewer resources to pay their fighters, to buy the weapons, to support their destabilizing activity. As of today, they will be cut off from those assets into the U.S. financial system.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For wisdom for Secretary Yellen as she oversees the imposition of sanctions on sponsors of terror.
- For the president and his administration officials as they propose support and assistance for Israel.
Sources: Washington Examiner, Reuters, CNN
