A Gaza flotilla leader tied to an alleged Hamas front group, as well as leaders of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-linked network, were sanctioned by the Department of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday.
Global Sumud Flotilla steering committee member and Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) General Secretariat member Saif Abukeshek, PCPA acting General Secretary and president Hisham Abu Mahfuz, Samidoun Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib, and Samidoun Madrid and Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Movement founder Jaldia Abubakra have been designated.
“The pro-terror flotilla attempting to reach Gaza is a ludicrous attempt to undermine President [Donald] Trump’s successful progress toward lasting peace in the region,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will continue to sever Hamas’ global financial support networks, no matter where in the world they are.”
Abukeshek and Abu Mahfuz were added to the list of specially designated nationals (SDN) for their association with the PCPA, which was sanctioned by OFAC in January for allegedly serving as a front group for Hamas.
The former activist has gained prominence as a leader of the Gaza flotilla movement with the GSF. He participated in the recent flotilla, only to be intercepted by the Israeli Navy on April 29.
Detained for questioning about his connections to Hamas
He was detained for questioning about his connections to PCPA and Hamas until his deportation last Sunday.
Khatib and Abubakra were added to the SDN list for their roles as officers of Samidoun, which was designated a terrorist front by the US and Canada in October 2024.
Abubakra, who participated in the flotilla in August, was also noted by the Treasury to have played a key role in the establishment of a “Samidoun partner organization in 2021.”
This is possibly a reference to Masar Badil, the Palestinian Revolutionary Path, which was founded that year and is led by Samidoun co-founder Khaled Barakat, who was also sanctioned in 2024.
Samidoun condemned the sanctions against its members and its “comrades Abukeshek and Abu Mahfouz, saying that it was a continued attack on the movement.
“Like the initial designation of Samidoun, as well as attempts to criminalize our work in Western imperialist countries, this is not only an attack on our organization, our leaders and our comrades, but on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement,” Samidoun said in a Tuesday statement.
“We must meet sanctions and silencing with loud voices of deepened and escalated resistance, action and mobilization, and truly globalize the intifada — most centrally for the people of Palestine, Lebanon and the resistance of the entire region on the front lines confronting genocide, Zionism and imperialism.”
