Washington places French citizens accused of financing Hamas on a blacklist

The United States on Friday placed two Frenchmen and the associations they created under economic sanctions, accusing them of collecting funds under the guise of humanitarian operations to transfer them to an official of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Faouzi Barika, of the Baraka association, and Amel Oualid, of the "Ensemble C Mieux" association, participated for several years in a scheme that raised more than two million dollars for Hamas.

"They run so-called charities supposedly raising funds for humanitarian purposes to help civilians in Gaza," OFAC wrote in a statement.

"In reality," the government service claims, the funds reach Hamas via a member of its armed wing, Saleem al-Zaq, who is also sanctioned.

"Over a six-year period from 2020 to 2026, Barika, Oualid and al-Zaq raised more than two million dollars for Hamas, including 1.5 million raised after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023," OFAC states.

Mr. Barika and Ms. Oualid, it is added, "sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrencies to al-Zaq, and the latter promoted the accounts linked to Barika and Oualid's fundraising on its own social networks."

Based in Gironde (southwest France) since 2023, Baraka presents itself as a "humanitarian association serving civilians in Gaza" on its website.

For the individuals and organizations targeted, US sanctions result in the freezing of any assets they may hold in the United States. They also require US companies and citizens (for example, Mastercard) to sever all financial ties with them, under penalty of being subject to sanctions themselves.

AFP