Bush moves to curtail terror funding
Hamas’ assets should be stripped, US President George Bush has insisted.
The extremist Islamist organisation Hamas took responsibility for this week’s suicide attack on a Jerusalem bus, which killed 20 and injured hundreds.
President Bush said this showed it had returned to terrorism.
He said: “Hamas has reaffirmed that it is a terrorist organisation committed to violence against Israelis and to undermining progress toward peace between Israel and the Palestinian people.”
Its action has threatened to derail the fragile Middle East peace process.
Hamas said on Thursday it would end its commitment to the three-month cease-fire after Israel killed one of its leaders, Ismail Abu Shanab, in a missile strike.
The US Treasury Department has requested the freezing of assets held by six Hamas leaders and five European fundraisers.
The six leaders are Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Imad Khalil Al-Alami, a member of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, Syria, Usama Hamdan, a senior leader in Lebanon, Khalid Mishaal, head of the Hamas political bureau and executive committee in Damascus, Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the political bureau in Syria, and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leader linked with Yassin.
The organisations on the list include the Committee for Charity and Aid for the Palestinians, in France, the Association for Palestinian Aid in Switzerland, the Palestinian Association in Austria, and the Sanbil Association for Relief and Development, which is based in Lebanon.
But the fundraisers largely operate out of Europe and the Middle East and therefore fall outside US jurisdiction.
Yesterday, saw some 100,000 Palestinians take to the streets of Gaza City for the funeral of Mr Abu Shanab.
A Hamas leader Abdelaziz al-Rantissi, said “Israel had killed the truce stone dead with the first missile fired at martyr Abu Shanab’s car.”
