US prosecutors charge Hamas leaders in October 7 attack

Washington (CNN) — The US Department of Justice has charged several senior Hamas leaders over the October 7 terrorist attack, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

The indictment is the first criminal step by the Justice Department to hold people accountable for the attack in Israel.

The five defendants – Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammad Al-Masri, Marwan Issa, Khaled Meshaal and Ali Baraka – are facing seven charges, including terrorism charges, conspiracy to murder US nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death.

The defendants are high-level Hamas officials, including Sinwar who is the terrorist organization’s leader in Gaza and one of the planners of the October 7 attack.

The complaint, which spans across several decades of alleged terrorist acts from Hamas, focuses in part on the October 7 attack against Israel.

Prosecutors detail how the brutal onslaught unfolded that day and the defendants’ involvement, one of whom is the alleged leader of Hamas’s militia group.

“On October 7, 2023, Hamas committed its most violent, large-scale terrorist attack to date,” the complaint says, detailing how “in the early morning hours … 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 continued, saying that “during the October 7 Hamas Massacres, Hamas 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 ten American citizens were taken hostage or remain unaccounted for,” prosecutors say.

Those senior members of Hamas charged called for mass terrorist attacks and celebrated the October 7 attack, prosecutors say.

The charges were originally filed on February 1, 2024, but kept under seal in case the Justice Department had the opportunity to arrest any of the defendants, a Justice Department official said Tuesday.

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

Three of the Hamas leaders charged are deceased.

Hamas leaders charged

Sinwar was named leader following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July. Sinwar is widely believed to have planned or been the mastermind behind the October 7 Hamas massacre on Israel.

Sinwar was sentenced to four life sentences by Israel in 1989 for the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he believed were collaborators.

He served 22 years of that sentence.

In 2011, Sinwar was released with 1,026 other Palestinians prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held in Gaza by Palestinian militants from 2006-2011.

Mohammad al-Masri is better known as Mohammed Deif and is the head of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which is the military wing of Hamas.

Israel said al-Masri was killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 13, though Hamas has denied that that is the case.

Issa was one of Israel’s top targets and it is believed he was killed when his house in Gaza was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in July.

Garland says US investigating murder of 23-year-old Israeli American

The announcement comes on the heels of the confirmed death of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza, which prompted President Joe Biden and other top US officials to vow that Hamas leaders would be held accountable.

“We’ll weigh other actions as appropriate,” a senior administration official said, but declined to elaborate.

Biden said over the weekend that Goldberg-Polin’s death was “as tragic as it is reprehensible.”

“Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,” Biden said.

In a recorded statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the Justice Department is investigating Goldberg-Polin’s murder.

“We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of the brutal murders of Americans, as acts of terrorism.  We will continue to support the whole of government effort to bring the Americans still being held hostage home,” Garland said.

Nearly 1,200 people were killed on October 7, including over 40 Americans. Hundreds of civilians were kidnapped.

Complaint outlines financing for terrorist operations

The attorney general said that the Hamas leaders, who he said “led” the October 7 attack, are charged for “financing and directing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States.”

“As outlined in our complaint, those defendants – armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hizballah – have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” Garland said.

The complaint detailed how Hamas and its leaders allegedly financed their terrorist operations through donations, “cryptocurrency, and transfers from the Government of Iran.”

“Hamas leaders, including the defendants, have played significant roles in the terrorist organization’s solicitation of funding contributions in support of Hamas’s violent objectives,” the complaint says, including using the October 7 attack on Israel to call for donations.

According to the complaint, in the wake of the attack Hamas’s armed wing, Al-Qassam, has “continued to solicit cryptocurrency and other financing after the October 7 Hamas Massacres on other social media platforms, specifically suggesting to followers methods to avoid interdiction by Israeli authorities, and has continued to receive contributions through at least one U.S.-based financial technology company.”

Iran, prosecutors say, has played “a critical and active role” in fundraising efforts for the militia, “through traditional cash exchanges, money transmitters … and cryptocurrency transactions.”

All of this, the complaint says, was to further Hamas’s shared goal with Iran “of annihilating Israel.”

In recent years, Iran also increased it’s funding to Hamas for intelligence over Israel’s missiles. This bump, prosecutors say, amounted to “roughly tens of millions of dollars a month.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Larry Register and MJ Lee contributed to this report.

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