DM Gantz signs four seizure orders for Hamas funds and property

Orders accumulate to millions of shekels

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Security forces loyal Hamas stand guard at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 12, 2020. (photo credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)
Security forces loyal Hamas stand guard at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 12, 2020.
(photo credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed four seizure orders for Hamas funds and property in Gaza around the world on Wednesday.
The decision, which came several days after Israel and Hamas agreed to a Qatari-brokered ceasefire to calm the escalating tensions between the two sides.
The cumulative amount from the seizure order is millions of shekels and is part of Israel’s economic campaign against the terror group which is led by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing in the Defense Ministry along with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), IDF, Foreign Affairs Ministry and other parties.
Gantz signed a seizure order to the amount of $900,000 in relation to the Osama Albashiti and Partners Money Changes and Money Transfers as well as its owner Asma Sadek Mohammed Albashiti for its Hamas related activities.
The defense minister also signed an order to restrict the transfer of property and funds to Ramy Abdu and Khalid Turaani, who manage the Palestine-International Platform of NGOs Working for Palestine (IPNGO) organization which operates in the UK and act on behalf to Hamas.
Gantz signed a similar order against Mahmoud El Hanafi, who serves as director-general of the Palestinian Institute for Human Rights, which acts on behalf of Hamas and operates in Lebanon. The group has been declared a terror organization in Israel.
“We will continue to act against terror in every way it acts, everywhere,” Gantz said. “The defense establishment, through the National Economic Counterterrorism Headquarters in the Defense Ministry, will pursue terror organizations in Israel and around the world, and will interrupt the distribution of terror funds.”
The seizure and restraining orders have been published on the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing website and translated into English and Arabic.
The Defense Ministry says they’ve also been widely distributed to Israel’s financial system and across the world, “which should impose additional restrictions on those organizations, institutions, and individuals.”