New Zealand was one of the few Western countries that did not take this step. Wellington this Thursday described the entire Hamas as a “terrorist entity” and claimed that the entire Islamist movement, including its political wing, bore “responsibility” for the October 7 attacks.
“The Hamas terrorist attacks in October 2023 were brutal and we unequivocally condemned them,” said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Hamas commandos carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a count based on official data.
Financial consequences for Hamas
New Zealand follows Australia, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada and the European Union, which have already described the armed and political wing of Hamas as “terrorist”. Under New Zealand law, this provision freezes all assets of a terrorist organization in the Pacific country and makes any transaction with it impossible.
Christopher Luxon, however, emphasized that this designation as a “terrorist entity” applies to Hamas, but “not to the Palestinian people in Gaza and around the world.” “This designation does not prevent New Zealand from providing humanitarian and future development assistance to the civilian population in Gaza,” he noted.
New Zealand has considered the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, a terrorist entity since 2010. But the country has so far been reluctant to follow the example of other Western countries and label them “terrorists” as a whole – which is also a political party and enjoys widespread support among Palestinians. Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2006 and has ruled the area without elections ever since.
Sanctions against “extremist Israeli settlers”
Some New Zealand politicians have called for the same “terrorist” designation to apply to the Israeli army after it killed nearly 30,000 people in an anti-Hamas bombing in Gaza, according to Hamas authorities in Gaza. Such a decision is highly unlikely, but New Zealand also announced sanctions this Thursday against a dozen “extremist Israeli settlers” accused of violence against the Palestinians.
OUR FILE ON THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT
“We are imposing travel bans on a number of individuals known to have committed acts of violence. These people will not be able to travel to New Zealand,” said Foreign Minister Winston Peters. However, the people were not named.