Britain on Thursday ordered the Bank of England to freeze assets of five senior members of the Palestinian group Hamas, including those of its new leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi.
"Chancellor [of the Exchequer] Gordon Brown today instructed the Bank of England, as agent for Her Majesty's Treasury, to direct financial institutions that any funds which they hold for or on behalf of five senior members of Hamas must be frozen," the treasury said in a statement.
"This action has been taken because the Treasury have reasonable grounds for suspecting that four of the individuals are, or may be persons who facilitate or participate in the commission of acts of terrorism and one, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, is or may be a person, who commits, facilitates or participates in such acts," the statement said.
Besides Rantissi, the other named are Musa Abu Marzouk, Imad Khalil Al-Alami, Usama Hamdan and Khalid Mishaal.
