The European Union has placed the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yehya al-Sinwar, on its terrorism list.

The decision is part of the response to the threat from the Palestinian militant organization Hamas and its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, the EU said on Tuesday in Brussels.

As a result, all of al-Sinwar’s funds as well as other financial assets and economic resources would now have to be frozen in the EU. In addition, assets and economic resources may not be made available to him either directly or indirectly.

The EU had already placed the commander of the armed wing of Hamas, Mohammed Deif, and his deputy, Marwan Issa, on its terrorism list in December.

Both are considered leading figures in Hamas and planners of the unprecedented massacre in Israel on October 7, as a result of which around 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 250 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip.

The EU classified Hamas, which violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, as a terrorist group in 2001.

The head of the Hamas politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, has not yet been sanctioned by the EU.

Al-Sinwar is the highest-ranking Hamas politician in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed the EU’s decision.

“This is a just and moral decision,” Katz wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I thank all our friends that supported this decision.”