Sanctions loom on Hamas and Hezbollah on U.S. demands

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Twenty Democrat and Republican U.S. representatives signed a letter sent to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, recalling that the Human Shields Law passed by Congress in 2018 obliges the U.S. administration to submit an annual report to Congress on the use of human shields and imposing sanctions on persons and entities involved in these crimes.

The letter indicated that the Iranian Hezbollah and Hamas employed this method as a strategy, and used innocent civilians to protect weapons and fighters which is a war crime.

“Imposing such sanctions shows the U.S. government’s lack of tolerance for the use of human shields and encourages other countries to take similar steps against these war crimes,” the representatives proclaimed.

It was reported that leader of Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, in particular, was mentioned in the letter. They called for imposing sanctions on him and the rest of the movement’s leaders, considering that such a step would enhance the efforts of the U.S. and NATO to confront the excessive use of human shields by other entities such as the Islamic State (ISIS), Taliban and other groups.

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