JERUSALEM, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett ordered on Thursday to seize about four million U.S. dollars allegedly transferred from Iran to Gaza's Hamas.
Bennett, a leader of the pro-settler New Right party, signed an order to confiscate the funds, his office said in a statement.
The funds were "intended to develop terror infrastructure belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including the production of weapons as well as payments to the organization's operatives," the statement read.
It added the funds were transferred from Iran to Hamas through a Gaza-based money exchange company.
"Our counter-terrorism activity is not only on the battlefield but also against their wallet," Bennett said, and added that the move was part of Israel's ongoing "extensive economic campaign against terror activities around the world."
Hamas is an Islamist Palestinian movement that runs the Gaza Strip, a coastal enclave that has been under Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007.
