Guardian Staff
The Guardian / September 4, 2024
Yahya Sinwar and at least five others accused by US justice department of planning and orchestrating the deadly attacks in which 1,200 people were killed
The United States has announced criminal charges against Hamas’ top leaders over their roles in planning, supporting and perpetrating the 7 October attack in southern Israel.
The charges against Yahya Sinwar, the militant group’s chief, and at least five others accuse them of orchestrating the attack, which killed 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans.
That attack triggered an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians and laid waste to much of the territory.
The seven-count criminal complaint includes charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to murder US nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death.
It also accuses Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah of providing financial support and weapons, including rockets, and military supplies.
“As outlined in our complaint, those defendants – armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the government of Iran, and support from [Hezbollah] – have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the state of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’s operations. These actions will not be our last,” Garland said. “Yahya Sinwar and the other senior leaders of Hamas are charged today with orchestrating this terrorist organization’s decades-long campaign of mass violence and terror – including on October 7th.”
The complaint names six defendants, three of whom are dead. The living defendants are Sinwar, who is believed to be in hiding in Gaza; Khaled Meshaal, who is based in Doha and heads the group’s diaspora office; and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon.
The deceased defendants are former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in July in Tehran; military wing chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel said it killed in a July airstrike; and Marwan Issa, a deputy military commander who Israel said it killed in a March strike.
Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death. Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility.
US prosecutors brought charges against the six men in February, but kept the complaint under seal in the hope of capturing Haniyeh, according to a Justice Department official.
The Justice Department decided to go public with the charges after Haniyeh’s death.
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.
Garland said US authorities were also investigating the killing of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli-American taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October. His death was announced over the weekend along with five other hostages.
“We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of Hamas’s brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism,” Garland said.
The charges come as the White House says it is developing a new ceasefire and hostage deal proposal with its Egyptian and Qatari counterparts to try to end the nearly 11-month war in Gaza.
National security spokesperson John Kirby said the recent “executions” of the six hostages underscored “the sense of urgency” in the talks.
In July, Hamas and Israel agreed in principle to implement a three-phase plan publicly proposed by Joe Biden in May. Hamas has since said the latest version of the proposal on the table diverges significantly from the initial plan because new Israeli demands have been added, including the lasting Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor along the border of Egypt and a second corridor running across Gaza.
On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out making any “concessions” in the stalled talks or “giving in to pressure” to end the war.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
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US charges Hamas leaders over October 7, Gaza mediation role under question
Al-Jazeera / September 4, 2024
Six defendants, three of whom have been killed in Israeli attacks, named in US case against Hamas officials.
The United States Justice Department has announced criminal charges against top leaders of Hamas over their roles in the October 7 attacks in southern Israel in what some see as a largely symbolic move against the Palestinian organization.
Six defendants, three of whom are deceased, were named in the complaint unsealed on Tuesday.
The deceased defendants are former Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in July in Tehran; Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an Israel air strike on Gaza in July; and Marwan Issa, whom Israel said it killed in an attack in March.
The living defendants are Hamas’s new leader Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be in Gaza; Khaled Meshaal, who is based in Doha and heads the group’s diaspora office; and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon.
“Those defendants – armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from (Hezbollah) – have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The US charges come as the White House says it is developing a new ceasefire and captive deal proposal with its Egyptian and Qatari counterparts to try to bring an end to fighting in Gaza.
Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, told Al-Jazeera that the US decision to charge the Hamas leaders hurts its role as a mediator in the ongoing ceasefire talks.
“The United States has been heavily, enthusiastically and vigorously supporting Israel in its current actions in Gaza – in what the UN calls a plausible genocide. And it has long opposed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, designating them as terrorist groups,” Khouri told Al-Jazeera from the US city of Boston.
The move to charge the Palestinian group also shows “the United States is very keen to hold Hamas responsible for its actions but has no similar desire to hold Israel accountable for its actions,” Khouri said.
“And, therefore, in the eyes of most of the world, the United States is not an honest broker, but is complicit in the Israeli genocide” in Gaza, he added.
US prosecutors said they brought charges against the six men in February, but kept the complaint under seal in hopes of capturing Haniyeh, the Reuters news agency said, attributing that information to a Justice Department official.
After Haniyeh’s killing in the Iranian capital in an assassination blamed on Israel, the Justice Department decided to go public with the charges, Reuters reports.
Source: Al-Jazeera and news agencies
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US announces criminal charges against Hamas leaders over October 7 attack
The National / September 4, 2024
The move is largely symbolic, as three defendants are dead and the likelihood of others appearing in a US court are slim.
The US Justice Department on Tuesday announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, over their roles in the October 7 attack in southern Israel that led to the war in Gaza.
The impact of the case may be mostly symbolic given that Sinwar is thought to be hiding in tunnels under Gaza and the Justice Department says three of the six defendants are believed to be dead.
The complaint was originally filed under seal in February to give the US time to try to take into custody the then-Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, but it was unsealed on Tuesday weeks after his death in Tehran and because of other regional developments, the Justice Department said.
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 murder US nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death. It also accuses Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah of providing financial support and weapons, including rockets, that were used in the attack.
On October 7, the Hamas-led attack killed 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans, and led to the assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,800 people and left much of the coastal territory uninhabitable.
“As outlined in our complaint, those defendants – armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the government of Iran, and support from (Hezbollah) – have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the state of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The complaint names six defendants, three of whom are dead. The living defendants are Sinwar, who is believed to be in hiding in Gaza; Khaled Meshaal, who is based in Doha and leads the group’s diaspora office; and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon.
The deceased defendants are Haniyeh, who Hamas says was assassinated in July in Tehran; military wing chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel says it killed in a July air strike; and Marwan Issa, a deputy military commander Israel said it killed in a March strike.
Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death but Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
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US charges Hamas leader, other militants in connection with Oct. 7 massacre in Israel
Eric Tucker
AP / September 4, 2024
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced criminal charges Tuesday against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other senior militants in connection with the Oct. 7, 2023, rampage in Israel, marking 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 such as conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and conspiracy to finance terrorism. It also accuses Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah of providing financial support, weapons, including rockets, and military supplies to Hamas for use in attacks.
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 that over the decades 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 and other defendants, but it was unsealed Tuesday after Haniyeh’s death in July 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.”
The charges come as the White House says it is developing a new cease-fire and hostage deal proposal with its Egyptian and Qatari counterparts to try to bring about an agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the nearly 11-month war in Gaza.
A U.S. official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press there was no reason to believe the charges would affect the ongoing negotiations.
National security spokesman John Kirby said the recent “executions” of six hostages, including one American, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, by Hamas underscore “the sense of urgency” in the talks.
“We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of the brutal murders of Americans, as acts of terrorism,” Garland said in the statement. “We will continue to support the whole of government effort to bring the Americans still being held hostage home.”
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. 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 charges are “yet another tool” for the U.S. to respond to the threat Hamas poses to the U.S. and its ally Israel, said Merissa Khurma, Middle East program director at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.
“If Sinwar is found and brought to justice for planning the October 7 attacks, it would be a significant win for the U.S. and for all those who lost loved ones,” she said by email.
However, with Sinwar in hiding, Khurma doesn’t see the charges adding more pressure on Hamas. She noted that the chief prosecutor of the world’s top war crimes court sought arrest warrants for Hamas leaders like Sinwar and it didn’t change their behavior or weaken them in the cease-fire negotiations.
She said the case was still important for the U.S. because many of those killed or kidnapped were Americans and because the country doesn’t recognize the International Criminal Court.
During the Oct. 7 attacks, militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage. Roughly 100 hostages remain, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
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.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The war has caused widespread destruction, 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.
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Courtney Bonnell in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report
Eric Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department and the special counsel cases against former President Donald Trump
