On Monday, the United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on three individuals and a Palestinian charity for allegedly laundering money for Hamas military activities.
The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement that its restrictions are targeting the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and its founder, Mohammad Hannoun, who is accused by U.S. authorities of acting as a Hamas representative and fundraiser in Italy.
The two other persons targeted were identified as Hamas members located in Austria and Germany.
The decision comes as U.S. officials have estimated the Gaza-based terror group may be raising as much as $10 million per month in donations to fictitious charitable associations.
“As we mark one year since Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, Treasury will continue relentlessly degrading the ability of Hamas and other destabilizing Iranian proxies to finance their operations and carry out additional violent acts,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement on the matter. “The Treasury Department will use all available tools at our disposal to hold Hamas and its enablers accountable, including those who seek to exploit the situation to secure additional sources of revenue.”
