U.S. Prosecutors Charge Hamas Leaders Over Oct. 7 Attack on Israel

Federal prosecutors charged six senior Hamas officials with terrorism and other crimes in connection with years of attacks on Israel, including the Oct. 7 massacre, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

The complaint, originally filed in February, names as defendants Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammad Deif, Marwan Issa, Khaled Meshaal, and Ali Baraka.

Each man faces seven criminal charges: conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals; conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death; conspiracy to provide material support for acts of terror resulting in death; conspiracy to bomb a place of public use resulting in death; conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death; conspiracy to finance terrorism; and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a sanctions-evasion charge.

The complaint also directly accuses Iran and the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah of supporting, supplying, and training Hamas members.

It goes on to lay out several decades of alleged terrorist activity on Hamas’ part, including the Oct. 7 attack, which it called the organization’s “most violent, large-scale terrorist attack to date.

“In the early morning hours of October 7, 2023, Hamas sent more than 2,000 armed fighters into farms and towns in southern Israel, where they carried out the massacres of over a thousand people and the kidnappings of more than 200 others,” the complaint states, going on to accuse Hamas fighters of firing more than 5,000 rockets at Israeli settlements and weaponizing sexual violence on the ground.

“As of the date of this Complaint, at least 43 American citizens were among those murdered, and at least ten American citizens were taken hostage or remain unaccounted for,” it adds.

Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images

In a statement released by the Justice Department, 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 complaint was kept under seal until this week in case federal authorities had the opportunity to make any arrests in the case, a Justice Department official told CNN on Tuesday.

Since the charges were filed, three of the defendants—Deif, Issa, and Haniyeh—have been killed. Deif and Issa, both top military commanders, were killed in Israeli airstrikes in July and March, respectively, according to Israel.

Haniyeh, a politician who had been involved in ceasefire talks, was assassinated in Tehran in July. Furious Iranian authorities blamed Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for his death.

“Following Haniyeh’s death and recent developments in the region, it was no longer necessary to keep those charges under seal,” the official said.

Sinwar, 61, who was named Hamas’ political leader after Haniyeh’s death, is widely believed to have masterminded the Oct. 7 attack. He spent more than two decades in an Israeli prison on a sentence of four life terms before being released in a prisoner swap in 2011. He and Deif were designated international terrorists by the U.S. in 2015.

Sinwar’s current location is unknown, but it is speculated that he has been underground in Gaza’s tunnels for roughly the past 10 months, according to the Associated Press.

Meshaal, 68, chaired Hamas’ Politburo from 2004 to 2017. He now heads Hamas’ diaspora office and is “effectively responsible for Hamas’ official presence outside of the Gaza Strip,” according to the Justice Department. He is based in Qatar.

Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

Baraka, 57, is Hamas’ head of national relations abroad and from 2011 to 2019 he was the group’s representative in Lebanon, where he is based, the department said.

The unsealing of the charges comes just days after six of the hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 were found dead in Gaza, triggering mass protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. A one-day general strike was held across the country on Monday.

One of the hostages was a 23-year-old Israeli-American named Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who along with two of the other hostages was scheduled to be released as part of the terms of a potential ceasefire deal.

“We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of Hamas’ brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “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.”

Netanyahu, who has vowed the wholesale annihilation of Hamas, has been accused of stonewalling the talks. President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday that the prime minister was not doing enough.

More than 60 living hostages and 35 believed to be dead are still being held in Gaza.

In the months since Oct. 7, Israel has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians and displaced nearly the entirety of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.