Hamas leaders charged by US over October 7 assault on Israel

The United States announced criminal charges on Tuesday against Hamas' top leaders over their roles in planning, supporting, and perpetrating the deadly October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel.

The charges against Yahya Sinwar, the group's chief, and at least five others accuse them of orchestrating the attack which killed 1,200 Israeli settlers, including more than 40 Americans.

Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza has since killed more than 40,800 Palestinians, including children, and laid waste to much of the territory.

"As outlined in our complaint, those 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 murder civilians in support of that aim," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

The complaint names six defendants, three of whom are deceased. The living defendants are Sinwar, who is believed to be in hiding in Gaza; Khaled Meshaal, who is based in Doha and heads the group's diaspora office; and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official based in Lebanon.

The deceased defendants are former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who the group says was assassinated in July in Tehran; military wing chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel claims to have killed in a July airstrike; and Marwan Issa, a deputy military commander who Israel said it killed in a March strike.

Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh's death. Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility.

US prosecutors brought charges against the six men in February, but kept the complaint under seal in hopes of capturing Haniyeh, according to a Justice Department official.

The Justice Department decided to go public with the charges after Haniyeh's death.

Charged along with Sinwar and Haniyeh was Mohammad Al-Masri, the former commander in chief of the al-Qassam Brigades who is believed to have died in July.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said that U.S. authorities were investigating the killing by Hamas, announced over the weekend, of Hersh Goldberg-Polin.AFP

Also charged was Marwan Issa, who was the deputy commander of the al-Qassam Brigades from approximately 2007 until his reported death earlier this year.

Qatar-based Khaled Meshaal, the head of the group's diaspora office responsible for overseeing Hamas's presence outside of Gaza, was also charged.

The final man charged was Ali Baraka, Hamas's head of National Relations, who is also based outside of Gaza.

Israeli commanders believe most-wanted Sinwar, 61, is hiding in a labyrinthine maze of tunnels that Hamas has built under the Gaza Strip over the years.

The October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people overall, mostly civilians and including and hostages killed in captivity, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,819 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.