Australia Lists All of Hamas as a Terrorist Group

Palestinian Hamas fighters take part in an anti-Israel rally in Gaza City May 22, 2021. (Reuters)
Palestinian Hamas fighters take part in an anti-Israel rally in Gaza City May 22, 2021. (Reuters)
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Australia Lists All of Hamas as a Terrorist Group

Palestinian Hamas fighters take part in an anti-Israel rally in Gaza City May 22, 2021. (Reuters)
Palestinian Hamas fighters take part in an anti-Israel rally in Gaza City May 22, 2021. (Reuters)

Australia on Friday listed the entire Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organization, calling the move a deterrent to political and religious violence and bringing Australia in line with the United States, the European Union and Britain.

Australia had for two decades proscribed Hamas's paramilitary wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization but flagged last month that it wanted to upgrade the listing to the whole organization, a process that involved consulting Australia's state and territory leaders.

The change puts Australia into lockstep with its allies, which have also been moving to tighten their opposition to the Gaza ruling body, citing its access to sophisticated weaponry and terrorist training facilities.

"The hateful ideologies of terrorist groups and those who support them have no place in Australia," Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said in a statement.

"Our strong laws target not only terrorist acts and terrorists, but also the organizations that plan, finance and carry out these abhorrent acts," she added.

Listing organizations was a deterrent to violent extremism and sent a message that Australia condemned the use of violence to achieve political, religious or ideological aims, she added.

Proscribing an organization in Australia makes it illegal to give it funds, support or services.

Hamas has political and military wings, both now designated. It has ruled the Gaza Strip since a conflict in 2007 when it expelled forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas remains dominant in Palestinian self-ruled areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Australia has been building its list of designated terrorist groups, which now number 28. It recently listed other groups: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is based in Syria, and the Nationalist Socialist Order, a group based in the United States.



Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
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Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert said that the “humanitarian city” that Israel’s defense minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert told the daily, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.

Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, has ordered the military to start drawing up operational plans for construction of the “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, to house initially 600,000 people and eventually the entire Palestinian population, stated the Guardian.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert told he daily, when asked about the plans laid out by Katz last week. Once inside, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries, Katz said.

The “humanitarian city” project is backed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the area Katz envisages for the camp is a sticking point in the faltering negotiations for a ceasefire deal, Israeli media have reported.