At a time when claims are surfacing about the relocation of senior members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas to Turkey from Qatar, the US Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Tuesday on six senior Hamas officials, three of whom are living in Turkey.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in a statement that the sanctions targeted the group’s representatives abroad, a senior member of the Hamas military wing and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts for the group and weapons smuggling into Gaza.
“Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza,” Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.
Among those targeted was Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas’s military wing who is now based in Turkey, the Treasury said. It accused him of involvement in “multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks,” including the 1997 Café Apropo bombing in Tel Aviv.
Two other Hamas officials based in Turkey were also among those targeted by the sanctions, the Treasury said, identifying them as Musa Daud Muhammad Akari and Salama Mari.
Akari had been involved in facilitating the transfer of funds from Turkey “into Gaza and the West Bank for Hamas” and was previously convicted of kidnapping and murdering an Israeli border police officer.
Mari, previously imprisoned for his role in a 1993 attack in the West Bank that killed an Israeli soldier, he is accused of being involved in financial facilitation for Hamas.
The sanctions were imposed after the US issued a warning on Monday to countries hosting members of Hamas, singling out Turkey after recent reports indicated possible moves by the group’s leadership to Turkey.
“I’ve seen the reports that some of the leadership of Hamas, who had been in Doha, have now moved to Turkey,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press meeting Monday.
Miller did not confirm the reports, but said he was “not in a position to dispute” them.
Turkey’s foreign ministry, however, denied the claims in a statement on the same day, saying that members of the Hamas political office visit Turkey from time to time but that claims about the relocation of the Hamas political office to Turkey do not reflect the truth.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been one of the strongest critics of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, sparked by the militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack claimed some 1,200 lives, mostly civilians, as well as the abduction of some 250 hostages. Some of the hostages have since died or been returned to Israel, but an estimated 100 remain in captivity.
Israel responded with a ground and air offensive that has so far killed at least 43,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Erdoğan has called Israel a “terrorist state” and accused it of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza. He has called Hamas “liberators” or “mujahideen” fighting for their land and has frequently hosted members in Turkey.
Hamas is known to have had an office in Turkey since 2011, when Turkey helped secure the agreement for the group to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Erdoğan maintained close links with Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, who was a frequent visitor to Turkey before his assassination in Tehran on July 31.
Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, among others.