The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday unsealed terrorism and other criminal charges have been filed against half a dozen senior members of Hamas, the Palestinian resistance group that governs the Gaza Strip, and whose militant arm led the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The DOJ said in a
statement that the six individuals "are senior leaders of Hamas responsible for planning, supporting, and perpetrating Hamas' October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel resulting in the brutal murders of more than a thousand innocent civilians, including over 40 American citizens."
In announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that "the Justice Department has charged Yahya Sinwar and other senior leaders of Hamas for financing, directing, and overseeing a decadeslong campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States."
"On October 7, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1,200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians," he continued. An unknown number of Israelis were killed by so-called "friendly fire" and under the Hannibal Directive, which allows Israeli forces to kill Israelis rather than let them fall into enemy hands.
"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. "We are investigating Hersh's murder, and each and every one of Hamas' 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' operations," he added. "These actions will not be our last."
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for warrants to arrest Sinwar plus two other men charged on Tuesday: Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader assassinated in Tehran in July, and Mohammed Deif, who led the group's militant arm. Israel also claims to have killed Deif.
The men are wanted for alleged crimes including extermination and rape. Khan also wants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his defense minister, for alleged crimes including extermination and forced starvation.
Israel is already on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice. Israel’s obliteration of Gaza has left more than 145,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and millions more displaced, sick, and starving.
Despite this, the Biden administration continues to provide Israel with billions of dollars in weapons, diplomatic cover in the form of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution vetoes, and repeated genocide denials.
Responding to the new DOJ charges, Liam O'Mara, a history professor at Chapman University in California, said: "Our government doesn't want peace in Palestine. It never has. We could, at any time, simply stop providing weapons to a far-right nationalist state intent on genocide. Instead, we just filed criminal charges against Palestinian militants who fought back."
