President Joe Biden speaks on the terrorist attacks in Israel alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken from the State Dining Room at the White House on October 7, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions on ten key Hamas leaders and those affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic group’s global fundraising network in response to the Islamist terror group’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
These fresh financial penalties, designed to track and seize Hamas-related assets, extend to Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria, and Qatar where the group operates.
Members of the terrorist group responsible for overseeing a Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, and a Hamas commander were slapped with sanctions by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). “Buy Cash,” a Gaza-based platform that provides money transfer and virtual currency exchange services, was also sanctioned for its alleged connection to the terrorist group’s fundraising.
These sanctions, carried out in collaboration with regional partners and allies, are part of the United States’s ongoing commitment to wiping out the terrorist group’s financial support in the West Bank, Gaza, and beyond.
Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen said in an email statement that 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.”
“The U.S. Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas. 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,” she said.
OFAC reports that Hamas receives funds from Iran while generating substantial revenue through its clandestine investment portfolio, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, spread out in various countries including Sudan, Algeria, Turkey (Türkiye), and the United Arab Emirates, among others. Companies affiliated with Hamas have attempted to conceal their role by posing as legitimate businesses.
“This investment network is directed by the highest levels of Hamas leadership and has allowed Hamas senior officials to live in luxury while ordinary Palestinians in Gaza struggle in harsh living and economic conditions,” the statement said.
Some of the ten Hamas leaders may be among those killed in Israeli air strikes on Hamas targets in recent days.
The declaration of sanctions comes after a bipartisan group of lawmakers issued a letter (pdf) on Tuesday, requesting the Biden administration provide an explanation on how cryptocurrency contributed to financing Hamas’s sudden attacks on Israel earlier this month.
“As Congress considers legislative proposals designed to mitigate crypto money laundering and illicit finance risks, we urge you to swiftly and categorically act to meaningfully curtail illicit crypto activity and protect our national security and that of our allies,” the letter read. “We therefore request answers to the following questions regarding Treasury’s plans to address the serious national security threats posed by the use of cryptocurrency to finance terrorism no later than October 31, 2023.”
Hamas’s Sources of Financial Support
Supporters of Palestine participate in a rally in Times Square in response to the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 13, 2023 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Founded by the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas allegedly benefits from the financial support of several other countries.
The U.S. government confirms that Iran allocates a significant amount of funds, approximately $100 million per year, to support Hamas.
Qatar also provides the Tehran-backed faction to the tune of some $120 million per year, according to The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Besides financial contributions, Turkey, Malaysia, Algeria, and Kuwait reportedly assist Hamas through military, diplomatic, and political means.
Hamas also allegedly gathers financial support via social welfare charities.
“Hamas social welfare support organizations play a direct role in facilitating its terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings,” said Matthew Levitt, Fromer-Wexler Fellow at The Washington Institute, in a 2003 analysis. “Hamas is known to use the hospitals it maintains as meeting places; to bury caches of arms and explosives under its own kindergarten playgrounds; to use dawa operatives’ cars and homes to ferry and hide fugitives; and to transfer and launder funds for terrorist activity through local charity (zakat) committees. Funds from abroad support these activities.”
Donations are also being sought openly on social media.
In the year 2019, an individual from New Jersey was indicted for trying to provide financial support to Hamas and making threats to pro-Israel demonstrators.
According to the charging document, the man made a donation through Moneygram to an individual in Gaza whom he believed to be affiliated with a faction of Hamas, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Just donated $100 to Hamas. Pretty sure it was illegal but I don’t give a damn,” he later posted on his Instagram account.
Biden Administration Sanctions Iran’s Missile
The Biden administration reiterated their intention on Wednesday to maintain restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile and drone pursuits, in line with the lapse of U.N. Security Council sanctions on the West Asian country’s missile arsenal.
“Today, as the United Nations’ restrictions on Iran’s missile-related activities under U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 expire, the United States reaffirms our commitment to utilize every tool at our disposal to counter Iran’s development, procurement, and proliferation of missiles, UAVs, and other dangerous weapons,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The United States also slapped sanctions on a cluster of individuals and enterprises hailing from Iran, China, Hong Kong, and Venezuela, who are involved in the development of Iran’s ballistic missile and drone endeavors, according to the statement.
This statement came as President Joe Biden paid a high-stake visit to Israel to express his support for one of the United States’s closest allies. He pleaded with Israeli leaders to show sympathy for the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza and act now to avert a total humanitarian crisis.
Israel has since agreed to not prevent Egypt delivering conditional aid through the Rafah crossing into Gaza, given that the aid is strictly restricted to “only food, water, and medicine for the civilian population located in the southern Gaza Strip or which is evacuating to there, and as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas.”
“Any supplies that reach Hamas—will be prevented,” the prime minister’s office said.
President Biden’s unprecedented trip to Israel took place against the somber backdrop of the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital explosion that reportedly killed hundreds on Tuesday. Accusations have flown over who is responsible for the attack, with initial reports blaming Israel but Israel saying it was not active in the area at the time of the strike, and that it detected a failed rocket launch by another terrorist organization Islamic Jihad hitting the hospital.
The jury is still out on whether President Biden’s whirlwind mission in Israel helped reduce tensions in the region. It does, however, illustrate the Biden administration’s resolve to stand by its ally Israel.
