DOJ charges Hamas leaders over Oct. 7 attack on Israel
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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza City on April 14, 2023. Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
U.S. prosecutors charged Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and five other leading figures in the Palestinian militant group with offenses including terrorism over the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
The big picture: The indictment that was unsealed Tuesday marks the first step in the U.S. trying to hold Hamas accountable for the killing and kidnapping of hundreds of civilians, including U.S. citizens, but it's largely symbolic as Sinwar is believed to be hiding in Gaza and the DOJ notes in a statement that three of those charged are believed to be dead.
- The charges come as the U.S. and other negotiators push for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal nearly 11 months into the Israel-Hamas war that's killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and 1,600 Israelis.
Driving the news: The indictment was filed under seal in February against Sinwar; Ismail Haniyeh; Mohammad Al-Masri, aka Mohammed Deif; Marwan Issa; Khaled Meshaal and Ali Baraka.
- They're charged with offenses including conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, conspiring to finance terrorism and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death. The indictment features allegations of attacks that stretch back decades.
- The charges "relate to the defendants' central roles in planning, supporting, and perpetrating the terrorist atrocities that Hamas committed in Israel" on Oct. 7, which the DOJ said marked "the culmination of Hamas's decades-long campaign of terrorism and violence against Israel and its allies."
What they're saying: "The Justice Department has charged Yahya Sinwar and other senior leaders of Hamas for financing, directing, and overseeing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
- He said the accused men led the Hamas killings of nearly 1,200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapping of hundreds of civilians.
- "This weekend, we learned that Hamas murdered an additional six people they had kidnapped and held captive for nearly a year, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli American," Garland added.
- "We are investigating Hersh's murder, and each and every one of Hamas' brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism. The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas' operations. These actions will not be our last."
Read the complaint, via DocumentCloud:
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