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 organisation, 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