Argentina designates Hamas a terrorist group

Argentina on Friday designated Hamas as a terrorist organization and ordered a freeze on the financial assets of the Palestinian group, ABC News reported.

The move is symbolic of President Javier Milei’s pro-Israel stance as he seeks to strongly align Argentina with Israel and the US, ABC News reported.

Mieli’s office cited the group’s cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed approximately 1,200 people and took 250 people hostage, in one of the deadliest assaults in Israel’s 76-year-old history, ABC News reported.

The statement also mentioned Hamas’ close ties to Iran which Argentina blames for two deadly militant attacks on Jewish sites in the country.

The move comes just days before the 30th anniversary of one of the attacks, the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. It killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more in the worst such attack in Argentina’s modern history, ABC News reported.

The other 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 militant group of carrying out the two attacks.

On Friday, Milei announced his “unwavering commitment to recognizing terrorists for what they are,” adding that “it’s the first time that there is a political will to do so.”

The US, European Union, and several other countries gave a terrorist designation on Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip before its current war with Israel.

Previous left-leaning Peronist governments in Argentina, home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, have maintained friendly ties with Israel but also voiced support for Palestinian statehood.

“Argentina must once again align itself with Western civilization,” Milei’s office said Friday.

For his first state visit as president earlier this year, Milei flew to Jerusalem in a show of support for the Israeli government and promised to move his nation’s embassy to the contested capital — drawing praise from Netanyahu and ire from Hamas.