GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel continues its attempts to tighten the noose on the Palestinians, mainly on Hamas, financially by pursuing money smuggling networks and funders. Israeli Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett issued Dec. 3 a decision to economically pursue Palestinian and foreign figures whom Israel accuses of funding terrorism.

The decision includes imposing restrictions on the accused to limit their ability to use their financial assets inside Israel and abroad to fund and support terrorist organizations. Mohammed Jamil Hersh, president of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) in the United Kingdom, was the first target out of hundreds, whom Israel said would be added to an online database that anyone could access. Israel accused Hersh of being a member of Hamas.

Israel expelled Hersh, who hails from Nablus city, to Marj Ez-Zouhour locality in south Lebanon in 1992, along with hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. Subsequently, Hersh moved around several countries in the world and finally settled in the United Kingdom in the early 2000s.

In early November, Israel announced dismantling a network that smuggles money from Iran to Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and arresting several Palestinians who work as money-changers in the West Bank and who transfer money to Hamas through crossings with Israel or through banks under the guise of charities.