DOJ charges Hamas leader, other militants over Oct. 7 attacks

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other militants over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Tuesday.

The charges, unsealed Tuesday, accuse Sinwar and other senior Hamas leaders of “financing and directing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States.”

The criminal complaint, filed in federal court in New York City, includes seven counts, including charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death.

“In its attacks over the past three decades, Hamas has murdered or injured thousands of civilians, including dozens of American citizens,” Garland said in a video announcement.

Garland zeroed in on Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, during which the group killed about 1,200 people — including more than 40 Americans. About 250 others were kidnapped and taken back to Gaza, including about a dozen Americans.

“In the early morning hours of Oct. 7 last year, Hamas, led by these defendants, committed its most violent, large scale terrorist attack to date,” he added. “They perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”

The Oct. 7 assault sparked the nearly 11-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, during which Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and driven hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes. Israeli leaders have remained steadfast in their goal of eliminating Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

Garland said the unsealed charges are “just one part” of the DOJ’s efforts to “target every aspect of Hamas’s operations.”

“These actions will not be our last. The Justice Department has a long memory. We will pursue the terrorists responsible for murdering Americans and those who illegally provide them with material support for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Garland pointed to the recent deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a native of Berkeley, Calif. The six hostages were shot at close range and died either Thursday or Friday before forces reached them in an underground tunnel in Rafah, according to Israeli health and military officials.

Their deaths prompted massive protests across Israel this week, as pressure grows on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire agreement with Hamas that would secure the release of the remaining hostages.

The charges come nearly a month after Sinwar was appointed as Hamas’s new leader following the assassination of top leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. Sinwar is believed to be hiding in the vast tunnel network underneath Gaza.

Other Hamas leaders facing charges include Haniyeh; Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed bloc in Gaza who Israel claimed was killed in March; Khaled Mashal, a Haniyeh deputy and former Hamas leader; Mohammed Deif, the commander of the al-Qassam Brigades who is believed to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in July; and Ali Baraka, Hamas’s head of national relations.

U.S. officials told The Associated Press at least one person, whom they did not name, is expected to be brought to New York for prosecution.