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DOJ charges Yahya Sinwar and other senior Hamas militants over 'terrorist atrocities' carried out on October 7
The Justice Department announced criminal charges Tuesday against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other senior militants over the October 7 rampage in Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.
This is the first effort by American law enforcement to formally call out the masterminds of the attack.
The seven-count criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City includes charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
It also accuses Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah of providing financial support, weapons, and military supplies.
Pictured: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar speaks during a meeting in Gaza City on April 30, 2022. The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Sinwar and other senior militants over the October 7 rampage in Israel
The October 7 massacre, which was carried out by Hamas, sparked the war in Gaza. The charges are the first effort by American law enforcement to formally call out the masterminds of the attack. Pictured: A Palestinian man takes a selfie in front of a burning Israeli military vehicle after it was hit by Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, at the Israeli side of Israel-Gaza border, October 7
Palestinian militants move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023
The impact of the case may be mostly symbolic given that Sinwar is believed to be hiding in tunnels in Gaza and the Justice Department says three of the six defendants are believed now to be dead.
But officials say additional actions are expected as part of a broader effort to target a militant group that the U.S. designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 and has been linked to a series of deadly attacks on Israel, including suicide bombings.
The complaint was originally filed under seal in February to give the U.S. time to try to take into custody then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who had been engaged in truce talks when he was killed in July in an attack blamed on Israel.
However, the raft of terrorism chargers were revealed Tuesday as Haniyeh's death and other developments in the region lessened the need for secrecy, the Justice Department said.
'The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas' operations,' Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a video statement. 'These actions will not be our last.'
Sinwar was appointed the overall head of Hamas after the killing of Haniyeh in Iran and sits atop Israel's most-wanted list. He is believed to have spent most of the past 10 months living in tunnels under Gaza, and it is unclear how much contact he has with the outside world.
The impact of the case may be mostly symbolic given that Sinwar (pictured) is believed to be hiding in tunnels in Gaza, the DOJ said
Pictured: Vlada Patapov. People flee music festival after Hamas attack in Israel.She became known as the lady in red - one of the most hauntingly iconic images from the October 7 massacre/ The October 7 attacks have been described as some of the most violent terror attacks in history
Israeli troops search the scene of a rocket attack in the Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Aza on the border with the Gaza Strip on October 11, 2023
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian, center, from Kfar Azza kibbutz into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land, and sea and catching the country off-guard on a major holiday
He was a long-serving Palestinian prisoner freed in an exchange of the type that would be part of a cease-fire and hostage release deal.
Haniyeh was also charged.
Other Hamas leaders facing charges include Marwan Issa, deputy leader of Hamas' armed wing in Gaza, who helped plan last year's attack and who Israel says was killed when its fighter jets struck an underground compound in central Gaza in March; Khaled Mashaal, another Haniyeh deputy and a former leader of the group thought to be based in Qatar; Mohammed Deif, Hamas' longtime shadowy military leader who was thought to be killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza in July; and Lebanon-based Ali Baraka, Hamas' head of external relations.
The criminal complaint describes the massacre as the 'most violent, large-scale terrorist attack' in Hamas' history.
It details how Hamas operatives who arrived in southern Israel with 'trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats, and paragliders' engaged in a brutal campaign of violence that included rape, genital mutilation and machine-gun shootings at close range.
Israelis embrace next to photos of people killed and taken captive by Hamas militants during their violent rampage through the Nova music festival in southern Israel, which are displayed at the site of the event, as Israeli DJs spun music, to commemorate the October 7, massacre, near Kibbutz Re'im, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of hostage Hersh Goldberg who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack, stand with a poster with the image of Hersh Goldberg on the day family members and supporters use giant loudspeakers to call their captive loved ones over the border from Israel to Gaza, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, at Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel August 29, 2024
The charges come as Washington expressed that it would work 'over the coming days' with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar 'to push for a final agreement' after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected 'concessions' in indirect negotiations with Hamas.
Netanyahu is currently facing growing domestic pressure following the recovery by Israel's military of six killed hostages from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Thousands of protests have massed across Israel this week calling for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza amid mounting disapproval of the government's handling of the war.
Hamas's October attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
The militants also seized about 250 hostages, around 100 of whom remain in Gaza, The Israeli military believe a third of the hostages to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The war has caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times, and created a humanitarian catastrophe.
Hamas has accused Israel of dragging out months of negotiations by issuing new demands, including for lasting Israeli control over the Philadelphi corridor along the border of Egypt and a second corridor running across Gaza.
Hamas has offered to release all hostages in return for an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants - broadly the terms called for under an outline for a deal put forward by President Joe Biden in July.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged 'total victory' over Hamas and blames it for the failure of the negotiations.