US terrorism charges announced against Hamas leadership for 7 October attacks

The Justice Department has levelled terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions-evasion charges against six senior leaders of Hamas for their alleged roles in planning, supporting, and perpetrating alleged terrorist atrocities that Hamas committed in Israel on 7 October 2023.

The attacks resulted in the murders of more than 1,000 people, including more than 40 American citizens.

During the attacks, Hamas targeted civilian populations with a barrage of rockets before sending terrorists to breach the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and then infiltrating Israel to launch attacks on civilians.

Armed Hamas operatives attacked and shot civilians, including children, sometimes with machineguns and sometimes at point-blank range, and weaponised sexual violence against Israeli women, including through rape and genital mutilation, according to the US Justice Department.

“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 B Garland said.

“On October 7th, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1,200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped 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.

“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.”

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The defendants charged in the complaint include senior leaders of Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya) such as former Hamas’ politburo chairman Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (also known as Abu Ibrahim), Al-Qassam Brigades commander-in-chief Mohammad Al-Masri (also known as Mohammed Deif and al Khalid al-Deif), Al-Qassam Brigades deputy commander Marwan Issa (also known as Abu Baraa), Hamas’ diaspora office head Khaled Meshaal (also known as Abu al-Waleed) and Hamas National Relations Abroad head Ali Baraka.

“Yahya Sinwar and the other senior leaders of Hamas are charged today with orchestrating this terrorist organisation’s decades-long campaign of mass violence and terror – including on October 7th. On that horrible day, Hamas terrorists viciously massacred nearly 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, including over 40 Americans, kidnapped hundreds more, and used sexual violence as a weapon of brutality,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

“Since that horrific day, we have worked to investigate and hold accountable those responsible, and we will not rest until all those who kidnapped or murdered Americans are brought to justice. Our thoughts continue to be with the families of all the victims of this barbaric terrorist attack.”

The US Department of Justice alleges that Hamas has pursued its objectives through innumerable acts of brutal terrorist violence, launching thousands of rockets specifically targeting civilian populations, suicide bombings of restaurants, markets, public transportation systems and other public spaces and military-style attacks on towns and residential communities in a campaign of terrorism that has killed and wounded citizens of Israel, the US and many other countries.

“From the moment Hamas launched its horrific attack on October 7, the FBI has been dedicated to identifying and charging those responsible for these heinous crimes,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

“The FBI has and will continue to relentlessly investigate these attacks on civilians, including Americans. Hamas is a foreign terrorist organisation with a long history of violence, and the group’s actions have resulted in increased terrorism threats in the US and against American interests throughout the world. Countering terrorism remains our number one priority, and our work continues.”

The complaint includes charging each of the defendants with: conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation resulting in death, conspiring to provide material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death, conspiring to murder US nationals outside the United States, conspiring to bomb a place of public use resulting in death, conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death, conspiring to finance terrorism and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

“The core mission of the National Security Division is to protect Americans from violent terrorists and extremist organisations like Hamas,” said assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

“The atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7 are intolerable, and the Justice Department will not rest in our pursuit to hold Hamas accountable for perpetrating its campaign of terror, death, and destruction.”