Australia joins anti-Hamas coalition

 Sky News:

Australia has joined the United States and United Kingdom in a new effort to place financial sanctions on Hamas and key officials supporting the terrorist group, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has confirmed.

Tuesday's announcement is the fifth round of measures introduced by the three countries, with the latest package focusing on Hamas' use of cryptocurrency as a method of transferring funds.

In a statement, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which coordinates the sanctions effort, said the measures included transfers between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, demonstrating further Iran's deep influence of the actions of both groups.

The IRGC-QF, one of five branches of Iran's IRGC, has long been identified as the principle mechanism through which Tehran seeks to fund the spread of hostilities against Western and other democratic nations worldwide.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Wong confirmed Australia's involvement in coordinating the sanctions.

"Overnight Australia has imposed further counter-terrorism and financing sanctions on 12 persons and three entities who are linked to Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad," she said.

"This is concurrent with further sanctions imposed on Hamas-linked targets by the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union."
...

Israel is already at war with Hamas after it engaged in the mass murder of Jews in Israel.  That is what the fighting in Gaza is all about.  The utter destruction of Hamas appears to be the goal.  I suspect that the Israelis also distrust the Palestinian Authority which Hamas took over when it came to power. 

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