David Cameron announces UK sanctions against Hamas leaders on first day as foreign secretary

Rishi Sunak’s government has announced sanctions against four senior Hamas leaders and two of the group’s financiers, in David Cameron’s first move as the new foreign secretary.

Lord Cameron – who has been handed a life peerage so he can join the Tory government – said he wanted to help Israel disrupt the “abhorrent” terrorist organisation.

The sanctions were coordinated with similar measures introduced by the Joe Biden administration in the US, also targeting leaders and financiers.

“We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to disrupt the abhorrent activity of this terrorist organisation, working with the United States and our other allies, making it harder for them to operate and isolating them on the world stage,” said the former Tory PM.

The new foreign secretary added: “The Palestinian people are victims of Hamas too. We stand in solidarity with them and will continue to support humanitarian pauses to allow significantly more lifesaving aid to reach Gaza.”

The Foreign Office said Hamas’ political leader Yahya Sinwar was among the key individuals from the group’s political and military wings targeted by the new sanctions.

Sinwar, Muhammed Deif, Marwan Issa, Musa Dudin, Abdelbasit Hamza and Nabil Chouman have been made subject to travel bans, asset freezes and arms embargoes that prohibit the sale of weapons to any of the individuals, the Foreign Office said.

The action is co-ordinated with the US and aimed at disrupting operations even if the leaders are “pulling the strings from outside of Gaza”, Mr Cameron’s department said.

Sinwar, Deif and Issa are all senior leaders of Hamas while Dudin is a West Bank-based Hamas official and Hamza and Chouman are both financiers, according to the government.

David Cameron attended cabinet for the first time as foreign secretary (Getty Images)

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said the Biden government would continue to work with its partners, including Britain, to “deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities”.

Mahmoud Khaled Zahhar, a senior member and co-founder of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)’s representative to Iran and the Damascus-based deputy secretary general of PIJ and leader of its militant wing were among those sanctioned by Washington.

Lebanon-based money exchange company Nabil Chouman & Co was also targeted, along with its owner and founder. The US Treasury accused the company of having served as a conduit for transferring funds to Hamas.

It come as junior Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell has said the Sunak government is considering using “air and maritime options” to get more aid into Gaza – including through its bases in Cyprus.

The junior minister told the Commons the government was considering its options for transporting aid into the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Mr Mitchell also insisted that Mr Cameron believes it is essential that MPs are able to scrutinise his work – even though they will not be able to question him directly in the Commons.

The return of Mr Cameron – who advocated for Remain in the Brexit referendum he called in 2016 – has sparked a furious backlash from Tory Brexiteers.

“It’s back to the past: a world in which Brexit may have happened legally but not in the mindset of those who rule us,” said Boris Johnson’s former Brexit minister Lord Frost.

Meanwhile, China hawks criticised Mr Cameron’s return to the frontline and said he should explain and business links to Beijing. Lord Cameron became vice chairman of the China-UK investment fund after leaving No 10.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has questioned how Mr Cameron’s “conflict of interest” with his business links to China will be resolved.

“I’m a little bit puzzled about this because until recently it appears he’s being paid by the Chinese government to promote certain things to do with the government,” Sir Iain told GB News.