The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed targeted sanctions on half a dozen Hamas leaders and financiers to hobble the organisation’s operations in Gaza and elsewhere, according to a statement released Tuesday by Britain’s Foreign Office.
The UK and the US had hit four of Hamas’ senior leaders and two of its financiers with travel bans, asset freezes and arms embargoes, according to the statement, CNN reports.
The UK and the US had already designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
“We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to disrupt the abhorrent activity of this terrorist organisation, working with the United States and our other allies, making it harder for them to operate and isolating them on the world stage,” UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in the statement on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the six individuals sanctioned are: Yahya Sinwar, a senior leader of Hamas and the group’s political leader in Gaza; Mohammed Deif, a senior leader of Hamas and the commander of the Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, who announced the October 2023 terrorist attacks; Marwan Issa, a senior leader of Hamas and the deputy commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades; Musa Dudin, a West Bank-based Hamas official who has procured weaponry for the group; Abdelbasit Hamza, a Sudan-based Hamas financier who owned a network of companies that laundered money and traded in currency in order to finance Hamas; Nabil Chouman, who has channeled funds to Hamas through his Lebanon-based currency exchange.
The statement, obtained by CNN, also reiterated the UK government’s support for “humanitarian pauses” to let “significantly more lifesaving aid reach Gaza.”
AFP reports that fighting raged in Gaza on Tuesday, more than five weeks after Hamas’s shock October 7 attack sparked a furious response from Israel which has vowed to destroy the Palestinian militant group.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel in the attack and around 240 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
In Gaza, more than 11,300 people, also mostly civilians, have been killed, health officials in the Hamas-run territory have said.
Meanwhile, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League has selected Nigeria as part of a special delegation mandated to initiate immediate international action to halt the ongoing war in Gaza.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, made this known in a statement on Tuesday.
According to Tuggar, the selection was communicated to Nigeria by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
Tuggar said the decision was taken in furtherance to the resolution adopted at the Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people, which took place in Riyadh on Saturday.
According to the minister, the resolution that bears Nigeria’s inclusion in the peace team states the following:
“Assign the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as the presidency of the 32nd Arab and Islamic Summit, along with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Palestine.
“Any other interested countries, and the Secretary-General of both organisations to initiate immediate international action on behalf of all member states of the OIC and the Arab League to formulate an international move to halt the war in Gaza.
“To pressure for a real and serious political process to achieve a permanent and comprehensive peace in accordance with established international references.”
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