Penny Wong announces sanctions against Middle East terror groups
The federal government has slapped sanctions on three entities and 12 people with links to prescribed terrorist organisations Hamas, Hizballah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad following attacks in the Middle East.
Penny Wong meets President Isaac Herzog
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the sanctions were imposed on leaders of Hamas, financial facilitators and people who provided training to terrorist operatives.
Sanctions were placed on three organisations that transferred funds to Hamas.
“This is concurrent with further sanctions imposed on Hamas-linked targets by the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union,” Senator Wong told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
The new measures come on top of previous sanctions against 17 people and seven entities with links to the terrorist organisations.
Under the sanctions, people providing money to the listed individuals or groups, as well as dealing with them or their assets, can face 10 years in prison and significant fines.
“Australia continues to unequivocally condemn the attacks on Israel by Hamas as abhorrent acts of terror against innocent civilians,” Senator Wong said.
The sanctions were imposed after violence in the Gaza Strip after attacks by Hamas against Israel on October 7.
More than 1200 Israelis were killed and 240 taken hostage, according to Tel Aviv officials.
In response, Israel’s bombardment, blockade and ground invasion of Gaza has killed more than 24,000 Palestinians, put half the territory’s 2.3 million residents at risk of starvation and left more than 60 per cent without homes, according to local health officials and the UN.
The sanctions come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal by Hamas for an end to the war in Gaza and release hostages.
Senator Wong, who recently returned from a week-long trip to the region, reaffirmed calls for an independent Palestinian state.
Any pathway to peace requires progress towards an independent Palestinian state and that is the best way to ensure peace and security and dignity for the Palestinian people and also the region,” she said.
AAP
At my age of 71 Senator Wong has to be the best Australian Foreign Affairs minister in my lifetime.
The only difference between The “”Palestinian”” Authority and Hamas is that the former wear neckties. Both reject Israel’s legitimacy. The mission of both is to terminate Israel’s existence. As for the “”Palestinian” people, for close to a century they have allowed and enabled their leaders to lead them to successive disasters.
Therefore a call for a “”Palestinian”” state is a call for the phased termination of Israel’s existence, in accordance with the Arab Egyptian, the late terrorist Yasser Arafat’s, strategy.
Ms Wong and her public service advisers know this well.
Conclusion about Ms Wong’s level of credibility?
She is such a smug waffler. Arrogant in the right she takes to make these kinds of statements. Stick to Australian policy, Penny Wong, and all the wrongs that need to be alleviated in this country.
Question: in the middle of the war against Germany – WWII – did the Allies stop and think of how best to accommodate a peaceful solution, security and dignity for Germany in the aftermath? Give us a break.
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The Labour govt made their position clear as soon as they came to power… pretended and encouraged the nonexistent, never existed, dysfunctional entity called ‘Palestine’ to be regarded as a state and moved our embassy out of the Israeli capital.
$46B builds a lot of tunnels, feeds and arms a lot of terrorists. Instead of blaming Israel for refusing to have a state run by terrorists as her neighbour, it’s time they listened to Mashal boasting how the world- and esp. universities – is resounding with ‘from the river to the sea’ since Oct 7. If you haven’t seen it, google MEMRI.
I’m sick of seeing Hamas as merely a Jewish problem and I’m sick of rubbish reporting sanctions as a new thing. If the government new these organizations were terror linked, they should have been sanctioned long ago. If they didn’t know they are negligent.
No sensible person – and certainly no Jew – should ever vote Labour while these ‘Palestine’ supporting creeps are anywhere within cooey of government.
She’s becoming more clear……….what took her so long?
AHHH politics!