This story first appeared in Common Dreams on May 19, 2026 and is shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
US officials announced sanctions on four organizers of recent humanitarian flotillas that tried to reach Gaza. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the measures target individuals it alleges are associated with the US-designated Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) and a flotilla it described as attempting to reach Gaza “in support of Hamas.” The sanctions freeze any US-based assets of the targets and bar Americans from doing business with them.
The individuals named by the Treasury are:
– Saif Abu Keshek, a Palestinian who holds Spanish and Swedish citizenship and a leader in the PCPA who helped organize Global Sumud Flotilla missions;
– Hisham Abdallah Sulayman Abu Mahfuz, president of the PCPA and based in Jordan;
– Mohammed Khatib, based in Belgium and the European coordinator for the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Samidoun; and
– Jaldia Abubakra Aueda, Samidoun’s coordinator in Madrid.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the action seeks to “sever Hamas’ global financial support networks” and described the flotilla as an attempt to undermine US efforts toward peace. Supporters of the flotillas and rights groups dispute any proven links between those missions and Hamas.
Responses to the sanctions were sharply critical from Palestinian rights advocates and some organizations involved in the flotillas. Samidoun called the move part of a broader US effort against Palestinian groups and pointed to recent Israeli interceptions and seizures of flotilla vessels at sea and the detaining of activists. Other advocates argued that US financial and technological leverage is being used to curtail pro-Palestinian organizing.
The announcement came amid a wider context of tensions over Israel’s conduct in Gaza. United Nations experts, multiple national governments, human rights organizations, and other observers have described Israel’s actions in Gaza with terms including genocide, apartheid, colonization, occupation, and ethnic cleansing; these characterizations are contested and form part of ongoing international debate and legal scrutiny.
Since October 7, 2023, both the Biden and Trump administrations have provided Israel with significant military aid and diplomatic support, including exercising vetoes on some UN Security Council ceasefire proposals. Analyses cited in public reporting place total US financial assistance to Israel since 1948, adjusted for inflation, at roughly $300 billion.
The Trump administration has also taken other measures related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including sanctions on international figures and organizations. Recent US sanctions targeted the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan and other ICC personnel after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza; the ICC also issued warrants for three Hamas leaders who have since been killed. Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the ICC was seeking his arrest and said he would “fight back,” including by ordering the removal of Palestinians from homes in parts of the West Bank.
The US also imposed sanctions on UN independent expert Francesca Albanese and her family; a federal judge temporarily blocked that action earlier in May, saying Albanese had “done nothing more than speak,” according to reporting.
Critics of the US measures say Washington increasingly uses terrorism and sanctions designations to limit pro-Palestinian organizing and to target diaspora activists. Isabelle Hayslip, advocacy manager at Democracy for the Arab World Now, told Al Jazeera that the designation process is widening and that Palestinian diaspora communities live under growing risk of being designated for their advocacy.
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