The European Union said Tuesday that it has put the mastermind of the devastating October 7 attack on Israel, Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, on its terrorist list.
EU headquarters said the move was in “response to the threat posed by Hamas and its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Israel.”
It said Sinwar “is subject to the freezing of his funds and other financial assets in EU member states. It is also prohibited for EU operators to make funds and economic resources available to him.” No further details were provided.
Sinwar, 61, has not been seen since October 7, when Palestinian terrorists stormed the Gaza border and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 240 hostages. Israel, which has declared him a “dead man walking,” believes Sinwar is hiding in a tunnel somewhere in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz hailed the EU decision to proscribe Sinwar as “just and moral.”
“I thank all our friends that supported this decision,” Katz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This decision is also 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,” he added.
In November, the EU froze the funds and other assets in Europe of Muhammad Deif, the commander general of Hamas’s military wing, and of deputy commander Marwan Issa.
Hamas and its military wing have been on the EU’s terrorist list as organizations for about 20 years.
