BRUSSELS: The European Union on Tuesday added Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar to its “terrorist” sanctions blacklist over the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The move means that the accused mastermind of the attacks is subject to an asset freeze in the 27-nation bloc and bans EU citizens conducting transactions with him.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is already listed as a “terrorist” organization by the EU.
The October attacks, the worst in Israel’s history, that resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Militants also dragged about 250 hostages back to Gaza, 132 of whom Israel says are still in the Palestinian territory, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed the move in a statement.
The decision is a result of “our diplomatic efforts to strangle the resources of the Hamas, to delegitimize them and prohibit all support to them. We will continue to eradicate the root of evil, in Gaza and wherever it raises its head,” Katz said.
Sinwar, 61, has not been seen since October 7.
After the attacks, Israel’s military declared Sinwar a “dead man walking.”
The Hamas chief was added to the US list of the most wanted “international terrorists” in 2015, as was Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, who is another alleged October 7 mastermind.
The EU has struggled for a united response to the Hamas’s attacks and Israel’s subsequent devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip.
At least 24,285 Palestinians, about 70 percent of them women, children and adolescents, have been killed in Gaza in Israeli bombardments and ground operations since October 7, according to the Hamas government.
EU adds Hamas Gaza leader Sinwar to ‘terrorist’ list
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EU adds Hamas Gaza leader Sinwar to ‘terrorist’ list
- The move means that the accused mastermind of the attacks is subject to an asset freeze in the 27-nation bloc
- Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is already listed as a “terrorist” organization by the EU
Kurds in Turkiye protest over Syria Aleppo offensive
- Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul
- In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: Protesters rallied for a second day in Turkiye’s main cities on Thursday to demand an end to a deadly Syrian army offensive against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said.
Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkiye’s main Kurdish-majority city, while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul that was roughly broken up by riot police who arrested around 25 people, the pro-Kurdish DEM party said.
In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament, denouncing the targeting of Kurds in Aleppo as a crime against humanity.
The protesters demanded an end to the operation by Syrian government forces against the Kurdish-led SDF force in Aleppo, where at least 21 people have been killed in three days of violent clashes.
It was the worst violence in the northwestern city since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power a year ago. The fighting erupted as both sides struggled to implement a March agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions into the new Syrian state.
In Istanbul, hundreds of protesters waving flags braved heavy rain near Galata Tower to denounce the Aleppo operation under the watchful eye of hundreds of riot police, an AFP correspondent said.
But some of the slogans drew a sharp warning from the police, who moved to roughly break up the gathering and arrested some 25 people, DEM’s Istanbul branch said.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the police attack on the Rojava solidarity action in Sishane. This brutal intervention, oppression, and violence against our young comrades is unacceptable!” the party wrote on X, demanding the immediate release of those arrested.
At the Diyarbakir protest during the afternoon, protesters carried a huge portrait of the jailed PKK militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP video journalist reported.
“We urge states to act as they did for the Palestinian people, for our Kurdish brothers who are suffering oppression and hardship,” Zeki Alacabey, 64, told AFP in Diyarbakir.
Although Turkiye has embarked on a peace process with the PKK, it remains hostile to the SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as an extension of the banned militant group and a major threat along its southern border.
It has repeatedly demanded that the SDF merge into the main Syrian military. A defense ministry official said on Thursday that Ankara was ready to “support” Syria’s operation against the Kurdish fighters if needed.
Demonstrators had already taken to the streets in several major Turkish cities with Kurdish majorities on Wednesday, including Diyarbakir and Van, according to images broadcast by the DEM.
