The US courts are filing a complaint against Hamas’ top leader, Yahya Sinwar, and five other leaders of the Palestinian organisation. The country’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, decided on Friday to file a complaint against these six leaders for their actions on October 7 and their previous activities.
The federal prosecutor’s complaint includes the crimes of terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder and even money laundering. “As described in our complaint, these defendants, armed with weapons, political support and funding from the Government of Iran and support from (Hezbollah), have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and to murder civilians in furtherance of that goal,” Garland said in a statement.
The decision is also justified by the accusation of murdering American citizens during and before the attack on October 7 in which Hamas killed at least 1,200 people. The US Justice Department explained that they are accused of “financing, directing and overseeing a multi-decade campaign to murder American citizens and endanger US national security.”
It was also noted that Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old American citizen, was among the six hostages found dead last weekend in Gaza. In this regard, in a press conference, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said that “Hamas has even more American blood on its hands and that is what we want to ensure. As you told me, Hamas leaders will pay for this crime.”
Three of the accused are dead
Prosecutor Garland has acknowledged that three of the defendants are dead. They are former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who the group says was killed in Tehran in July; the head of its military wing, Mohamed Deif, whom Israel says it killed in an airstrike in July; and Marwan Issa, a deputy military commander who Israel killed in a strike in March.
Apart from Sinwar, Khaled Meshaal, who is based in Doha and heads the group’s diaspora office, and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon, are also still alive. In its statement, the US Justice Department also referred to Iran as one of Hamas’s main allies.
“Hamas’s attacks have played a significant role in the Iranian government’s regional and global campaign of supporting terrorism to weaken and ultimately destroy both the United States and Israel,” they said.
The new charges against Hamas leaders come nearly 11 months after the unprecedented attack on Israeli soil. Israel has since killed more than 40,800 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s health ministry, with no peace deal in sight.
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