America unsealed a raft of “terrorism” and different fees in opposition to six Hamas leaders on Tuesday associated to the armed Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel.
The charging doc, dated February 1, targets six leaders of the group — together with Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and late political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in late July in Tehran.
They’re accused of “conspiracy to supply materials assist for acts of terrorism leading to dying” together with six different counts.
The costs have been filed below seal “to place the US to be able to take into custody” Haniyeh and the opposite defendants, a Justice Division official stated in a press release.
The official cited Haniyeh’s dying — which Hamas and Iran say was an Israeli assassination — and unspecified “latest developments within the area,” as causes for the unsealing.
Hamas, which has been designated a “terrorist group” by Washington since 1997, launched its unprecedented assault on Israel on October 7, triggering the brutal ongoing conflict within the Gaza Strip, which is managed by the Palestinian group.
“The costs unsealed immediately are only one a part of our effort to focus on each side of Hamas’s operations. These actions won’t be our final,” US Legal professional Common Merrick Garland stated in a press release.
– ‘Mass violence’ –
Garland stated that US authorities have been additionally investigating the killing of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli-American taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.
His dying was introduced over the weekend together with 5 different hostages.
“We’re investigating Hersh’s homicide, and every one in all Hamas’s brutal murders of Individuals, as an act of terrorism,” Garland stated.
Charged together with Sinwar and Haniyeh was Mohammad Al-Masri, the previous commander in chief of the al-Qassam Brigades who’s believed to have died in July.
Additionally charged was Marwan Issa, was the deputy commander of the al-Qassam Brigades from roughly 2007 till his reported dying earlier this yr.
Qatar-based Khaled Meshaal, the pinnacle of the group’s diaspora workplace chargeable for overseeing Hamas’s presence exterior of Gaza was additionally charged.
The ultimate man charged was Ali Baraka, Hamas’s head of Nationwide Relations, who can be based mostly exterior of Gaza.
Israeli commanders imagine most-wanted Sinwar, 61, is hiding in a labyrinthine maze of tunnels that Hamas has constructed below the Gaza Strip through the years.
The October 7 assault on Israel resulted within the deaths of 1,205 individuals, largely civilians and together with hostages killed in captivity, in keeping with an AFP tally based mostly on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s marketing campaign in opposition to Hamas has up to now killed no less than 40,819 individuals in Gaza, in keeping with the territory’s well being ministry. The UN rights workplace says a lot of the useless are ladies and kids.
