US charges Hamas leaders with terrorism, citing October 7 attack

Israeli army issues an evacuation warning to Palestinians in the Hamad area of Khan Yunis, Gaza, Palestinians who remain in the area continue to struggle to survive under difficult conditions amidst the rubble of destroyed buildings on August 12, 2024. Photo / Getty Images

United States officials unsealed charges on Tuesday against senior Hamas leaders, accusing them of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organisation, conspiring to murder Americans and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction.

The criminal complaint against Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar and others cites the group’s large-scale attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1200 people, including 40 Americans, and resulted in the taking of about 250 hostages.

The complaint was filed under seal in federal court in New York in February. In a videotaped statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland stressed that Hamas is responsible for the October 7 deaths.

“During the attack, Hamas terrorists murdered civilians who tried to flee, and those who sought refuge in bomb shelters,” Garland said. “They murdered entire families. They murdered the elderly, and they murdered young children. They weaponised sexual violence against women.”

The Attorney General also said the Justice Department is investigating the killing last week of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli American who was among those taken hostage. The Israeli military found his body and that of five other slain hostages in a tunnel in Gaza. He was buried in Israel on Monday.

“We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of the brutal murders of Americans, as acts of terrorism,” Garland said. “We will continue to support the whole-of-government effort to bring the Americans still being held hostage home.”

US law allows the Justice Department to charge foreign nationals for killing Americans. Garland has previously said the department was investigating the killings of Americans by Hamas.

In addition to Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in Gaza’s subterranean tunnels, the complaint charges three Hamas leaders who have since been killed. Among them is Ismail Haniyeh, who was the group’s political leader until he was assassinated in Tehran in July, apparently by Israel. The other two are Mohammed Deif, a top Hamas military leader until he was apparently killed by Israel in a July operation, and Marwan Issa, a deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing until he was killed in March in an Israeli operation in Gaza City.

Of the six Hamas officials charged by the US, two others besides Sinwar are still believed to be alive. One of them, Khaled Meshaal, is described by US officials as the head of Hamas’s diaspora office, directing the group’s activities outside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The other, Ali Baraka, is the head of Hamas’s National Relations Abroad.