The Council of Europe has added new companies to its new sanctions list targeting the financial assets of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It added six individuals, including a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official and a money launderer who transferred money from Iran, and will sanction three businesses, including shell companies based in Spain and Sudan.
The European Union has frozen the assets and imposed visa bans on a number of companies and individuals accused of helping Hamas finance its activities, according to a statement from Brussels.
This is the second round of sanctions imposed by the EU on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups following their attacks on Israel on October 7. The EU bloc has so far blacklisted 12 individuals and three organizations linked to the militants.
Among the latest targets are three shell companies, including the Spanish real estate firm Al Zawaya Group, which key financier Hamza Abdelbasit used to funnel funds to the group, and two other companies based in Sudan, the EU said in a statement.
Hamas’ head of “foreign investment activities”, a money changer who handled transfers from supporter Iran, and an official in charge of the group’s “Charities Association” were also shot, it said.
The EU also announced sanctions against Ali Morshed Shirazi, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official who oversees Tehran’s links with Palestinian groups in Lebanon.
Maher Rebhi Obeid, a senior Hamas official, was also listed as “responsible for directing Hamas terrorist activities in the West Bank”.
EU expected to sanction six Sudanese military officials for fuelling the war
