The U.S. Department of State announced on Tuesday rewards of up to $5 million each for information or identification leading to the capture of the following figures: Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruri and Hezbollah leaders Khalil Yusif Mahmoud Harb and Haytham ‘Ali Tabataba’i.
Aruri is a prominent Hamas leader and an outspoken anti-occupation figure. He is currently living in Lebanon.
“Our country is not immune. In 2011 the Qods Force allegedly was involved in a plan to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States at a restaurant in Georgetown” Nathan Sales ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Tuesday.
Sales said serious measures have been taken to chase down Hamas leaders among them the group’s chief Ismail Haneyya over “terror charges” in reference to their anti-occupation activism.
Seven other Palestinian leaders figure on the US terror blacklist: Mohamed al-Dheif (the commander of the Qassam resistance brigades); Ziad al-Nakhala (Secretary of the Islamic Jihad); Yehya al-Sinwar (Hamas chief in Gaza); Fathi Hamad (senior Hamas leader); Ahmad al-Ghandour (a leader at the Qassam Brigades); Ramadan Shallah (former Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad); and Rawhi Mushtaha (political bureau member of Hamas).
The State Department on Tuesday also officially designated Nasrallah’s son Jawad along with the al-Mujahidin Brigades as terrorists subjecting them to the toughest sanctions.
As of 1997 both Hamas and Hezbollah are U.S.-designated terrorist entities.
