Yahya Sinwar, the group’s political chief, was charged with carrying out the terrorist attacks that resulted in the killing of at least 43 Americans. Five other Hamas senior leaders were also charged.
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Yahya Sinwar in Gaza City in 2022.
Federal prosecutors charged Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, and five senior members of the group with planning and carrying out years of terrorist attacks in Israel, including the Oct. 7 massacre, according to a sweeping complaint unsealed on Tuesday.
The criminal complaint, originally filed in New York in February, implicated two other senior members of Hamas not previously thought to be directly involved in the attacks. It also listed the number of Americans believed to have died at 43.
The other leaders named are Ismail Haniyeh, who had led Hamas’s political office in Qatar; Muhammad Deif, the commander of the group’s military wing; Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of the group’s military wing; Ali Barakeh, a senior Hamas official based in Beirut; and Khaled Meshal, a former political leader of the group who still remains a top official. Israel killed Mr. Deif and Mr. Issa during the fighting in Gaza and assassinated Mr. Haniyeh in Iran.
Mr. Meshal, who resides in Qatar, and Mr. Haniyeh were not known to be involved in carrying out the Oct. 7 attacks. The two men, along with Mr. Barakeh, were all outside Gaza when the attacks happened, catching Israel by surprise. Mr. Haniyeh was living in Doha before his death.
The plans surrounding the attack were thought by American and Israeli intelligence to have been kept secret and only known by a few trusted people inside Gaza such as Mr. Sinwar and Mr. Deif. If true, the U.S. charges against the political members of Hamas could cast a different light on the group’s activities.
The charges come at a politically fraught moment as the White House tries to save cease-fire talks and amid the discovery last week that Hamas executed six hostages in Gaza, including a 23-year-old Israeli-American whose death prompted an outpouring of grief across the United States.
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Source: nytimes.com
