Justice Department unseals indictment in opposition to six senior Hamas leaders over October 7 assaults in Israel and different | EUROtoday

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The US Department of Justice on Tuesday unsealed a sweeping set of expenses in opposition to six leaders of Hamas.

The case, initially filed in New York federal court docket in February, accuses the Hamas officers of a variety of terrorism-related offenses stretching from 1997 via the current battle with Israel that started on October 7.

“The Justice Department has charged Yahya Sinwar and other senior leaders of Hamas for financing, directing, and overseeing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States,” Attorney General Merrick Garland stated in a press release accompanying the announcement. “On October 7th, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians.”

The indictment names six Hamas leaders unfold throughout the Gaza Strip, Qatar, and Lebanon: Ismail Haniyeh, the previous chairman of the Hamas politburo; Yahya Sinwar, the present chief of Hamas; Mohammad Al-Masri, also referred to as Mohammed Deif, the previous commander of al-Qassam Brigades, Marwan Issa, the previous deputy commander of al-Qassam Brigades; Khaled Meshaal, head of the Hamas diaspora workplace; and Ali Baraka, head of Hamas’s unit for nationwide relations overseas.

After the costs have been filed, Issa and Deif have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, and Haniyeh was assassinated throughout a go to to Hamas patron Iran.

The announcement comes as ceasefire talks between Israel and Gaza have failed to supply a concrete decision and U.S. and Israeli officers face ever-growing strain to result in an finish to the battle.

Israel stated on Sunday it had recovered the our bodies of six hostages killed in a tunnel underneath the Palestinian metropolis of Rafah, together with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American who had develop into probably the most extensively identified of the greater than 200 hostages captured by the Palestinian militant group.

The discovery prompted one more spherical of large-scale protests vital of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu within the streets of Israel.

In May, the International Criminal Court introduced it will search battle crimes warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, in addition to Sinwar, Deif, and Haniyeh.