Argentina declares Hamas a terrorist group

Argentina on Friday designated Hamas a terrorist organisation and ordered a freeze on the Palestinian group’s financial assets, ABC News reports.

The move symbolizes President Javier Milla’s pro-Israel stance, as he/she seeks to align Argentina more closely with Israel and the United States, ABC News reports.

Milley’s office cited the group’s cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, as one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s 76-year history, reports ABC News.

The statement also noted Hamas’ close ties with Iran, which Argentina blames for two deadly terrorist attacks on Jewish sites in the country.

The move comes just days before the 30th anniversary of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The worst such attack in Argentina’s modern history left 85 people dead and hundreds more injured, ABC News reports.

A second attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 killed more than 20 people. Argentina’s judiciary has accused members of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group of carrying out both attacks.

On Friday, Milley declared his/her “unwavering commitment to exposing terrorists for what they are,” adding that “this is the first time there is the political will to do so.”

The US, the European Union and several other countries have declared Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip before the current war with Israel, as terrorists.

Previous leftist Peronist governments in Argentina, home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community, have maintained friendly relations with Israel but have also expressed support for a Palestinian state.

“Argentina must once again engage with Western civilization,” Miley’s office said Friday.

During his/her first state visit as president earlier this year, Milley visited Jerusalem to show support for the Israeli government and pledged to move his/her country’s embassy to the disputed capital – a move for which Netanyahu praised him/her, while Hamas expressed its displeasure.