The U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other high-ranking militants in connection with the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. This is the first time American law enforcement has formally targeted the masterminds behind the attack.
The seven-count criminal complaint, filed in federal court in New York, accuses Sinwar and others of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, and conspiracy to finance terrorism. The complaint also alleges that Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah provided financial support, weapons, including rockets, and military supplies to Hamas for use in attacks.
The impact of the case may be largely symbolic as Sinwar is believed to be hiding in tunnels in Gaza, and the Justice Department reports that three of the six defendants are now deceased. However, officials say they expect further actions as part of a broader effort to target Hamas, a militant group designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1997. Hamas has been linked to numerous deadly attacks on Israel over the decades, including suicide bombings.
The complaint was initially filed under seal in February to allow the U.S. time to attempt to apprehend then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and other defendants. However, it was unsealed on Tuesday following Haniyeh’s death in July and other developments in the region that diminished the need for secrecy, according to the Justice Department.
“The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a video statement. “These actions will not be our last.”
These charges emerge as the White House reveals its development of a new cease-fire and hostage deal proposal with Egyptian and Qatari counterparts. The proposal aims to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the nearly 11-month war in Gaza.
A U.S. official, who requested anonymity due to their lack of authorization to speak publicly about the case, told The Associated Press that they saw no reason to believe the charges would impact the ongoing negotiations.
National security spokesman John Kirby stated that the recent “executions” of six hostages, including an American, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, by Hamas highlight the “sense of urgency” in the talks.
“We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of the brutal murders of Americans, as acts of terrorism,” Garland said in the statement. “We will continue to support the whole of government effort to bring the Americans still being held hostage home.”
Sinwar became the overall head of Hamas following the death of Haniyeh in Iran and is at the top of Israel’s most-wanted list. It is believed that he has spent most of the past 10 months living in tunnels beneath Gaza, making his contact with the outside world unclear. He was a longtime Palestinian prisoner who was released in an exchange, similar to the kind that would be part of a cease-fire and hostage release deal.
Haniyeh was also charged.
Other Hamas leaders facing charges include Marwan Issa, deputy leader of Hamas’ armed wing in Gaza, who assisted in planning last year’s attack and was reportedly killed in March by Israeli fighter jets that struck an underground compound in central Gaza; Khaled Mashaal, another Haniyeh deputy and a former leader of the group believed to be residing in Qatar; Mohammed Deif, Hamas’ long-standing shadowy military leader who was purportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza in July; and Lebanon-based Ali Baraka, Hamas’ head of external relations.
These charges represent “yet another tool” for the U.S. to counter the threat posed by Hamas to the U.S. and its ally Israel, according to Merissa Khurma, Middle East program director at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.
“If Sinwar is found and brought to justice for planning the October 7 attacks, it would be a significant win for the U.S. and for all those who lost loved ones,” she stated via email.
However, considering Sinwar’s concealed status, Khurma doesn’t anticipate the charges increasing pressure on Hamas. She pointed out that the chief prosecutor of the world’s premier war crimes court sought arrest warrants for Hamas leaders like Sinwar, yet this didn’t alter their conduct or weaken their position in cease-fire negotiations.
She emphasized the case’s importance for the U.S. due to the numerous Americans killed or kidnapped and the country’s non-recognition of the International Criminal Court.
During the October 7 attacks, militants killed around 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and took approximately 250 people hostage. Roughly 100 hostages remain, with a third believed to be deceased.
The criminal complaint describes the massacre as the “most violent, large-scale terrorist attack” in Hamas’ history. It outlines how Hamas operatives, arriving 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.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Their count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The war has led to extensive destruction, forcing the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times, creating a humanitarian crisis.
Hamas has accused Israel of prolonging negotiations for months by introducing new demands, including lasting Israeli control over the Philadelphi corridor along the Egyptian border and a second corridor spanning Gaza.
Hamas has offered to release all hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the release of numerous Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants. These terms align broadly with the outline for a deal proposed by President Joe Biden in July.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “total victory” over Hamas and blames them for the negotiations’ failure.
—Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Courtney Bonnell in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.