U.S. announces federal terror charges against Hamas leaders for October 7

'The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’s operations,' Merrick Garland said. 'These actions will not be our last.'

Published Sep 04, 2024  •  Last updated 4 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hamas leaders oversaw “a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States.” Photo by Mark Schiefelbein /The Associated Press

The U.S. Department of Justice announced terrorism charges against senior leaders of Hamas for carrying out the October 7 massacre.

Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general, announced the charges on Tuesday evening in a recorded message. He said that Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders oversaw “a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States.”

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“On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1,200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians,” Garland said. “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.”

Garland said the federal government is investigating Goldberg-Polin’s murder, and “each and every one of Hamas’s 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’s operations,” Garland said. “These actions will not be our last.”

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The newly unsealed complaint charges Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, Khaled Meshaal and Ali Baraka with seven counts each related to the October 7 attacks. Those include conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death.

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Haniyeh, Deif and Issa are reportedly dead. Meshaal and Baraka are based in Qatar and Lebanon, respectively, while Sinwar is believed to be in the Gaza Strip.

“The Justice Department has a long memory,” Garland said in the recorded message. “We will pursue the terrorists responsible for murdering Americans, and those who illegally provide them with material support, for the rest of their lives.”

Dated Feb. 1, the complaint notes that on Oct. 7, more than 2,000 Hamas fighters massacred more than 1,000 people and kidnapped more than 200 others. It adds that the terrorists “weaponized sexual violence against Israeli women, including rape and genital mutilation.”

“As of the date of this complaint, at least 43 American citizens were among those murdered, and at least 10 American citizens were taken hostage or remain unaccounted for,” per the complaint.

The document also describes the “instrumental” role that Iran and Hezbollah played in supporting Hamas and enabling it to carry out the October 7 attacks.

The department added that the FBI is continuing to investigate the case.

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