Israel Matzav

The United States on Friday added a senior Hamas official, the Islamist group's former interior minister Fathi Hammad, to its "global terrorist" list.

Hamas, the Palestinian party controlling the Gaza Strip, has already itself been proscribed by the United States as a "foreign terrorist organization."

Under the new designation, U.S. citizens and companies will be banned from doing business with Hammad and any property he holds in areas under U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen.

According to the U.S. State Department, which issued the designation, as interior minister Hammad used his position to "coordinate terrorist cells."

The statement also said Hammad founded al-Aqsa TV, "with programs designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood."