The fresh sanctions are part of the United States' bid to wipe out Hamas' revenue sources, and also target Hamas operatives and financial facilitators located in Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury said the investment portfolio has operated under the guise of legitimate businesses with the investment network allowing senior Hamas officials to "live in luxury while ordinary Palestinians in Gaza struggle in harsh living and economic conditions."
"The U.S. Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas," Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement Wednesday. "We will continue to take all steps necessary to deny Hamas terrorists the ability to raise and use funds to carry out atrocities and terrorize the people of Israel."
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Wednesday emphasized that the sanctions were directed at Hamas and its support network, "not Palestinians."
"Hamas alone is responsible for the carnage its militants have inflicted on the people of Israel, and it should immediately release all hostages in its custody," Blinken said. "The United States will not relent in using all the tools at our disposal to disrupt Hamas terrorist activity."
The sanctions, which cut access to funds in the U.S. and prevent sanctioned people and entities from doing business with companies and people in the U.S. — come as President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday where he backed Israel's claim that it wasn't responsible for an explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday, which Gaza's health ministry said resulted in more than 500 Palestinians being killed.
Hamas has blamed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital blast on an Israeli airstrike, while Israel claimed a missile misfire by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Gaza, was to blame.
Biden said in his meeting with Netanyahu that the blast appeared to have been "done by the other team," not Israel.
Among the individuals hit by Wednesday's sanctions is Muhammad Ahmad 'Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah, who the Treasury said is a longtime Hamas operative based in Qatar with close ties to Iran and who was involved in transferring tens of millions to Hamas.
Ayman Nofal, a member of the Hamas military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassim Brigades who was allegedly killed in a Tuesday airstrike, is also among the sanctioned individuals. The Treasury said Nofal is a key commander of military relations for Hamas and a member of the group's General Military Council.
Also sanctioned is a virtual currency wallet, Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Co., which provides money transfers and virtual currency exchange services, including bitcoin. Buy Cash was among a number of virtual currency wallets seized in June 2021 by Israel's National Bureau for Counter Terrorist Financing, according to the Treasury.
The Treasury said Buy Cash has been used in fundraising for Hamas and as well as in fund transfers by affiliates in other terrorist groups.
On Wednesday, Biden also announced an agreement with Israel to allow humanitarian aid to move into Gaza and confirmed $100 million in U.S. humanitarian aid for Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Wednesday's sanctions build on sanctions from May 2022 that targeted other officials and companies involved in Hamas' investment portfolio.
The U.S., however, has imposed dozens of sanctions on Hamas and its networks since the Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence — the Treasury agency responsible for combating terrorist financing — was founded in 2004.
Brian Nelson, the undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said Tuesday at Deloitte's 15th annual Anti-Money Laundering Conference that while Hamas received significant financial help from Iran, "it also generates vast sums of revenue through its secret investment portfolios, with a network of global assets estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars."
Nelson said Hamas, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in 1997, raised funds by controlling border crossings and commerce, racketeering business frameworks, and extortion.
"Notably, it also receives donations from around the world, both directly and by illicitly funneling money through fictitious charitable organizations," he said.
On Tuesday, bipartisan U.S. lawmakers including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. expressed "grave concern" over Hamas' use of cryptocurrency in funding their operations and evading U.S. sanctions.
In a letter to Nelson and Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, the lawmakers sought answers concerning the Treasury's plans to address the national security threats posed by cryptocurrency use. They questioned what steps the Biden administration was taking to address the threats and its estimates of cryptocurrency assets controlled by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while citing reports indicating the two groups collectively raised more than $130 million in cryptocurrency between August 2021 and June.
"As Congress considers legislative proposals designed to mitigate crypto money laundering and illicit finance risks, we urge you to swiftly and categorically act to meaningfully curtail illicit crypto activity and protect our national security and that of our allies," the lawmakers said.
--Editing by Lakshna Mehta.
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