WASHINGTON, Nov 14, (Agencies): The United States on Tuesday said it imposed a third round of sanctions on a group of Hamas officials, members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who work to transfer money from Iran to Gaza, and a Lebanese money exchange service that facilitates the transfers. The Treasury Department sanctions, coordinated with the United Kingdom, come in response to the surprise Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that left roughly 1,200 people dead or kidnapped.

The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans. This and two previous rounds of sanctions against Hamas and its affiliates are aimed at protecting the international financial system from abuse by Hamas militants and their enablers, the Treasury Department said. The State Department also is designating a Palestinian Islamic Jihad military leader for diplomatic sanctions. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an emailed statement that “together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas’s financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts.”

The White House has said it has yet to uncover information that Iran, the principal financial and military sponsor of Hamas, was directly involved in the multipronged Hamas operation against Israel. However, the U.S. has conducted three strikes over the last two weeks against Iranian-tied weapons depots in Syria to retaliate for the more than 50 rocket and drone attacks that militant groups have launched since Oct. 7 against U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, which have caused dozens of minor injuries among U.S. personnel. President Joe Biden and other officials in his Democratic administration have traveled to the Middle East to show support for Israel and have tried to tamp down tensions in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas. But those efforts have faced massive setbacks.

More than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, said the Oct. 7 assault on Israel was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities over the past year, increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians, and the growth of settlements, among other reasons. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared Israel to be at war, said its military would use all of its strength to destroy Hamas’ capabilities. “All the places that Hamas hides in operates from,” he said, “we will turn them into ruins.”

In other news, Kuwait condemned an attack by Israeli occupation forces on the headquarters of Qatar’s Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, slamming the incident as another “crime” against Palestinian civilians and their facilities. The attack by Israeli forces on a Qatari committee meant to provide aid for the Palestinians typifies Israel’s “aggressive tendencies” towards the Palestinians, said a foreign ministry statement. These actions are “gross violations” of international laws and principles, the statement underlined, urging the international community to intervene and put an end to “Israeli transgressions,” it said. Elsewhere, Palestinian authorities proposed a Red Cross-supervised evacuation of a hospital beset by fighting in Gaza on Tuesday, as health officials warned that the only way to save three dozen newborns trapped there would be to call a cease-fire and transport them out of the besieged territory.

After days of battles with Palestinian militants, Israeli forces have encircled Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of patients, medical staff, and displaced people are trapped with dwindling supplies and without electricity to run incubators and other equipment. Gaza’s largest hospital has emerged as a symbol of Palestinian suffering in the war between Israel and Hamas that extends far beyond its walls. Only one hospital in the territory’s north is still capable of receiving patients, and about 200,000 Palestinians have streamed out of the area toward worsening conditions in the south in recent days, the U.N. humanitarian office said Tuesday.