Canada announced yesterday Wednesday new sanctions aimed at combating the “terrorist activities” of Hamas and its “financing circuits”, as well as against “extremist” Israeli settlers who committed “acts of violence” against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.

Ottawa also imposed, “in coordination” with Australia and the US, sanctions on five senior Iranian officials for their role in promoting “repressive and discriminatory policies” that led to the suppression of protests in blood.

These latest sanctions come as it marks two years since the death at the hands of morality police of Mahsha Amini, a 22-year-old from Iran’s Kurdish minority, after she was arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code imposed on women in the Islamic Republic.

The sanctions on Hamas concern 11 individuals and two entities that play a role in the financing network of the Palestinian Islamist movement and, according to Ottawa, contributed to the planning and execution of the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Four Israelis and two organizations, the Mount Hebron Fund and Sholom Asiraich, were also added to the blacklist for “participating (…) in persecution and violent actions”, including “attacks on humanitarian aid convoys, destruction of property and displacement Palestinian communities,” according to a Canadian diplomatic press release.

The sanctions were announced as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held talks on Wednesday with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, which along with Egypt and the US is mediating indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, at war. for almost a year now.

Mr. Trudeau expressed his “deep concern about the risk of escalation of war,” the threatened outbreak of conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other “Iranian-aligned” organizations, his services said.