US State Dept. designates Hamas commander a global terrorist

Abu Anas al-Ghandour, accused of involvement in Gilad Shalit abduction, sanctioned, US assets to be frozen

By JTA 6 April 2017, 9:31 pm
Members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas, attend a memorial in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on January 31, 2017. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The State Department gave a “global terrorist” designation to a Hamas military commander who it accused of being involved in the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

On Thursday, the State Department declared Abu Anas al-Ghandour a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” under a 2001 executive order that imposes sanctions on foreigners who have committed or pose “a significant risk” of committing terrorist attacks.

The US and its citizens will generally not be allowed to conduct business with Ghandour, and any assets he has in the US will be frozen.

According to the State Department, the Israel-born Ghandour leads a Gaza brigade for Hamas, which the US considers a terrorist organization. In the kidnapping of Shalit at an Israeli border crossing, two Israeli soldiers were killed and four were wounded.

Shalit was released in 2011 in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel.

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