EU imposes further sanctions against Hamas, PIJ over 7 October sexual violence

EU member states imposed on Friday (12 April) measures under the bloc’s human rights sanctions regime on the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for ‘widespread’ sexual violence during the 7 October attacks on Israel.

Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October last year killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to official figures by Israeli authorities, and triggered Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza.

The listed entities under sanctions include the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the EU-designated terrorist organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Nukhba Force, a special forces unit of the EU-designated terrorist organisation Hamas, as well as the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

EU countries said fighters from the two Palestinian groups “committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war”.

The abuses by Hamas fighters included “the rape and subsequent murder of female minors, mutilation of corpses as well as genital mutilation”, the decision said. It also accused them of the “targeted abduction of women and girls”.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have previously been designated as terrorist organisations by the EU.

With the latest decision, the three entities will now be subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban to the EU, which also prohibits the direct or indirect provision of funds or economic resources to them.

A separate set of EU sanctions against violent Israeli settlers is expected to be approved next week, EU diplomats said.

The step comes after a careful diplomatic choreography hashed out by EU member states last month.

After weeks of disagreements, EU foreign ministers agreed they would impose additional sanctions against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas before sanctioning Israeli settlers for attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.

The sequencing was important for those EU members close to Israel, who wanted to avoid the perception they were equating the two groups.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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