The French government has frozen the financial assets of two top Hamas terrorist commanders in response to the murderous attacks on October 7th that left about 1,200 people dead in Israel and hundreds more taken hostage.
Starting on Monday, the assets of Mohammed Deïf and Marwan Issa have been frozen by France for a period of at least six months. The men are considered the two main commanders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas terror organisation that has controlled the Gaza Strip since taking over in a 2007 coup.
The proclamations to freeze their assets, made by the French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty and the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, were announced in the Official Journal of the French Republic on Tuesday.
The announcement prohibited the “direct or indirect, or use of funds or economic resources for the benefit” of the two men as well as “legal entities or any other entities” under their control or “knowingly act” on their behalf until at least May 13th of next year.
It came in response to the October 7th Hamas terror attacks on Israel that saw approximately 1,200 people in Israel murdered and around 240 people taken hostage. The raids were conducted by the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, which has an estimated 20,000 fighters under its control.
Mohammed Deïf has led the armed wing of Hamas since 2002, taking over for the Salah Shehadeh after his assassination by Israel. Deïf, who first joined the terror group in 1987, is currently the most wanted Hamas figure by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), according to Le Figaro.
The IDF has claimed that Deif “played a pivotal role in conceiving, planning and executing the barbaric October 7th massacre.”
Meanwhile, Marwan Issa, who was officially designated as a terrorist by the United States in 2019, is believed to serve as deputy commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades under Deïf.
The sanctions came in the wake of a diplomatic row between Paris and Jerusalem following President Emmanuel Macron’s demands for a ceasefire — which would effectively be a victory for Hamas — and his suggestion that Israel was intentionally killing women and babies in the retaliatory strikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Macron had called him to “clarify” his comments, saying that Macron backed away from the suggestion that Israel was intentionally targeting civilians, which even the European Union has acknowledged is a result of Hamas using the Palestinian population as “human shields”.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.
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