US, Britain impose further sanctions on Hamas individuals in effort to hit financial network

Britain and the United States today imposed an additional series of sanctions against individuals linked to the Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, in an effort to further isolate the Movement and its financial capabilities.

According to a statement by the US Treasury Department, its sanctions targeted eight alleged officials who it said support Hamas’s agenda, further its interests abroad, and help manage its finances, with many based within Turkiye.

Those individuals include Ismail Musa Ahmad Barhum, who reportedly helped to collect money from global fundraising into Hamas finance ministry accounts, Jihad Muhammad Shaker Yaghmour, the group’s official representative to Turkiye and Mehmet Kaya, who was involved in multiple financial transfers and helped provide “tens of millions of dollars of financial services for Hamas”.

The sanctions also targeted Haroun Mansour Yaqoub Nasser Al-Din, a key financial operative for Hamas within Turkiye who was reportedly involved in a network that transferred money to the group’s alleged command centre in the West Bank city of Hebron, where the Treasury says the funds facilitated Hamas’s stoking of unrest in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Brian Nelson, the Under-Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, was quoted as stating that “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 funnelling those illicit proceeds to support its military activities in Gaza”.

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This latest round of sanctions comes around two weeks after Nelson travelled to Oman and Turkiye at the end of November to work on American efforts to stem the financial capabilities, fundraising and monetary transfers by Hamas and other militant groups.

Britain’s Foreign Office also announced its sanctions on seven additional people linked to Hamas, including the group’s co-founder, Mahmoud Zahar, and head of external relations, Ali Baraka. The British sanctions also targeted a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group and – in line with the US – figures in the financial network that supports Hamas. The individuals who the UK imposed sanctions on also include those in Lebanon and Algeria.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, stated today at the imposition of the measures that “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.”

Hamas has since condemned the measures, insisting they are based on false allegations and saying in a statement that “We call on the American administration and the British government, once again, to review their aggressive policies towards our Palestinian people.”