On Friday 12 April, the Council of the EU decided to add three entities to the list of the EU’s global human rights sanctions regime, “in view of their responsibilities in the brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks that occurred across Israel on 7 October 2023”. These are the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organisation subject to EU restrictive measures, the Nukhba Force, a Hamas special forces unit, and the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, a terrorist organisation subject to EU sanctions.
In particular, the EU Council accuses the members of these organisations of committing rape, including of minors, the murder of female infants, genital mutilation and mutilation of corpses, sexual abuse of minors and corpses, and the targeted abduction of women and girls.
These organisations are subject to an asset freeze and it is forbidden to provide them with funds or economic resources.
With these new listings, the EU human rights sanctions regime applies to 104 natural and legal persons and 26 entities.
See legal acts: https://aeur.eu/f/br6 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)