According to Kyodo News, on October 31, the Japanese government declared that nine people’s assets as well as one cryptocurrency trading company had been frozen because they were suspected of providing financial support to the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas. In addition to the United States and other countries, this action takes place in the midst of an ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in an effort to cut off the financial sources that support Hamas’s operations.
The decision by the Japanese government is directed at organisations that are allegedly providing financial support to Hamas, an organisation that launches rocket attacks against Israel. At a press conference, Japan’s Defence Minister Hirokazu Matsuno stressed the importance of continuing to assess possible sanctions from the standpoint of counterterrorism funding.
On October 18, the United States had already imposed sanctions against people and organisations connected to Hamas. Ten people and organisations were blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which went beyond the Gaza Strip to include Sudan, Turkey, Algeria, and Qatar. This move, which aims to break up Hamas’s financial infrastructure, is in line with a larger global effort to stop the funding of terrorism.
The US sanctions against a virtual currency exchange based in Gaza highlight the growing global concern over digital financial platforms facilitating illicit financial flows, which is highlighted by the involvement of a cryptocurrency trading company in this case.
There is growing international agreement to address the financing of terrorism, as evidenced by the US and Japan’s actions. In the midst of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, the actions give the efforts to reduce militant activity in the Middle East a financial component.