DOJ costs Hamas chief, different militants over Oct. 7 assaults

The Division of Justice has charged Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and different militants over the group’s Oct. 7 terrorist assault on Israel, Legal professional Common Merrick Garland introduced Tuesday.

The fees, unsealed Tuesday, accuse Sinwar and different senior Hamas leaders of “financing and directing a decades-long marketing campaign to homicide Americans and endanger the safety of the US.”

The criminal complaint, filed in federal court docket in New York Metropolis, contains seven counts, together with costs of conspiracy to offer materials help to a overseas terrorist group, conspiracy to homicide U.S. nationals and conspiracy to make use of weapons of mass destruction, leading to loss of life.

“In its assaults over the previous three a long time, Hamas has murdered or injured hundreds of civilians, together with dozens of Americans,” Garland mentioned in a video announcement.

Garland zeroed in on Hamas’s Oct. 7 assaults, which killed about 1,200 individuals — together with over 40 Individuals. About 250 others had been kidnapped and brought again to Gaza, together with a couple of dozen Individuals.

“Within the early morning hours of Oct. 7 final yr, Hamas, led by these defendants, dedicated its most violent, giant scale terrorist assault thus far,” he added. “They perpetrated the deadliest bloodbath of Jews because the Holocaust.”

The Oct. 7 assault sparked the almost 11-month battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, throughout which Israel has killed greater than 40,000 Palestinians and pushed lots of of hundreds of civilians from their properties. Israeli leaders have remained steadfast of their aim of eliminating Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Garland mentioned the unsealed costs are “only one half” of the DOJ’s efforts to “goal each side of Hamas’s operations.”

“These actions won’t be our final. The Justice Division has a protracted reminiscence. We’ll pursue the terrorists answerable for murdering Individuals and people who illegally present them with materials help for the remainder of their lives,” he mentioned.

Garland pointed to the latest deaths of six more hostages in Gaza, together with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a local of Berkeley, Calif. The six hostages had been shot at shut vary and died both Thursday or Friday earlier than forces reached them in an underground tunnel in Rafah, according to Israeli health and military officials.

Their deaths prompted large protests throughout Israel this week, as strain grows on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to succeed in a cease-fire settlement with Hamas that may safe the discharge of the remaining hostages.

The fees come almost a month after Sinwar was appointed as Hamas’s new head following the assassination of high chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran final month. Sinwar is believed to be hiding within the huge tunnel community beneath Gaza.

Different Hamas leaders dealing with costs embody Haniyeh; Marwan Issa, the deputy chief of Hamas’s armed bloc in Gaza who Israel claimed was killed in March; Khaled Mashaal, a Haniyeh deputy and former Hamas chief; Mohammed Deif, the commander of the al-Qassam Brigades who’s believed to have been killed in an Israel airstrike in July; and Ali Baraka, Hamas’s head of nationwide relations.

U.S. officers told the Associated Press at the least one individual, whom they didn’t title, is anticipated to be dropped at New York for prosecution.