In a new step within a series of successive measures, the US Treasury Department announced yesterday the imposition of sanctions on a prominent leader in the Egyptian “Muslim Brotherhood,” along with three individuals and three entities, on charges of providing financial and logistical support to the Hamas movement, which Washington describes as a direct extension of the organization.
The decision, issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), targeted Mahmoud Al-Abyari, Secretary-General of the General Secretariat of the Muslim Brotherhood and residing in Britain. The US Treasury stated that he contributed to collecting donations for institutions previously classified by the US due to their links to Hamas, most notably the “Palestine and Yolo Life Foundation.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented on the decision in firm language, affirming that the US administration will not tolerate those who finance terrorism “whether they operate under the cover of a charitable association, a company, or a secret banking network,” and that these individuals “will be exposed and held accountable.”
In this context, Treasury documents revealed a recurring pattern adopted by Hamas and the groups linked to it, based on creating fictitious entities under charitable or commercial names to transfer funds across borders.
According to sources, the movement established, under the alias “Seven Spikes Global,” a company in Indonesia named “Tujuh Bulan Global” to provide revenues for its military wing, while in Gaza it founded an association called “Medad Palestine Charity,” which collected donations under the name of supporting civilians before —according to the Treasury— being diverted to purely military purposes.
The other side of the network involves a Turkish company called “Cairo for General Trade,” owned by Khaldoun Khamis Zakaria Alden along with the brothers Zaid and Abdullah Al-Jubouri.
According to the Treasury, the company did not limit itself to transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hamas, but also provided informal banking services, in both cash and digital currencies, to organized criminal groups operating in Sweden, including what is known as the “Foxtrot Network.”
Sources indicated that this measure is separate from a broader context, as it builds on previous sanctions imposed in March and January of this year, which at the time targeted a global network of Hamas financial facilitators.
For its part, the Treasury confirmed that the operation came in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Customs and Border Protection, within a joint effort to dismantle the movement’s secret financial structure.
The decisions are legally based on the amended Executive Order 13224, which forms the American legal basis for combating terrorism financing since 2001, the year in which Hamas was originally placed on US sanctions lists.
Sources stated that the decision means freezing any assets or interests of those listed inside the United States or subject to the control of American persons, with an almost complete ban on any financial dealings with them.
They clarified that the most dangerous aspect is that any foreign financial institution proven to be involved in facilitating transactions for these individuals may itself become a target of secondary sanctions, up to being deprived of opening correspondent accounts within the American banking system.
