In a significant move aimed at curbing cyber threats, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on a Hamas official involved in cyber influence operations.
Hudhayfa Samir ‘Abdallah al-Kahlut, 39, known as Abu Ubaida, has been designated for his role as the public spokesperson of Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, since at least 2007.
The Treasury Department’s announcement came on Friday, citing al-Kahlut’s public threats to execute civilian hostages held by Hamas following the group’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
Al-Kahlut, in addition to his spokesperson role, heads the cyber influence department of al-Qassam Brigades. His involvement extends to procuring servers and domains in Iran to host the official al-Qassam Brigades website, in collaboration with Iranian entities.
Accompanying this action, the Treasury also named two other individuals, William Abu Shanab, 56, and Bara’a Hasan Farhat, 35, for their involvement in manufacturing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used by Hamas in various terrorist operations, including urban warfare and intelligence gathering.
Abu Shanab, along with his assistant Farhat, operates within the Lebanon-based al-Shimali unit, with Abu Shanab holding a commander position.
Simultaneously, the European Union implemented its own set of sanctions against Al-Qassam Brigades, Al-Quds Brigades, and Nukhba Force for their involvement in “brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks” against Israel in the past year.
Al-Quds Brigades represents the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while Nukhba Force is a specialized unit within Hamas.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson, emphasized that these coordinated actions aim to disrupt Hamas’s capacity to carry out further attacks, particularly through cyber warfare and UAV production.
These developments follow closely on the heels of the U.S. government’s sanctioning of six Iranian officials, linked to the Iranian intelligence agency, for their involvement in attacking critical infrastructure entities in the U.S. and other nations.
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