US charges Hamas leader and other militants over October 7 massacre in Israel

The US Justice Department has announced criminal charges against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other senior militants in connection with the October 7 2023 rampage in Israel.

It marks the first effort by American law enforcement to formally call out the masterminds of the attack.

The seven-count criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York City includes charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, conspiracy to murder US nationals and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death.

The impact of the case may be mostly symbolic given that Sinwar is believed to be hiding out in tunnels and at least two of the other defendants named by the Justice Department are thought to have been killed.

But US officials say at least one person, whom they did not name, is expected to be brought to New York for prosecution.

“The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’s operations,” attorney general Merrick Garland said in a video statement.

“These actions will not be our last.”

Sinwar was appointed the overall head of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and sits atop Israel’s most-wanted list.

He is believed to have spent most of the past 10 months living in tunnels under Gaza, and it is unclear how much contact he has with the outside world.

Other Hamas leaders charged include Haniyeh; Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza who helped plan last year’s attack and who Israel says was killed when fighter jets struck an underground compound in central Gaza in March; Khaled Mashaal, another Haniyeh deputy and a former leader of the group; Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s longtime shadowy military leader, who is thought to be dead following an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza in July; and Ali Baraka, Hamas’s head of external relations.