麻豆区

Department of Justice announces terrorism charges against Hamas leaders

The US Department of Justice unsealed a set of charges against three senior leaders of Hamas, including terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions-evasion charges.

The case, originally filed in New York federal court in February, accuses the Hamas officials of a range of terrorism-related offences stretching from 1997 through the present conflict with Israel that began on 7 October.

Merrick B. Garland, attorney general, said: 鈥淭he 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."

Garland refered in his comments to 23-year-old Hersg Goldberg-Polin, an聽Israeli-American found dead in Gaza at the weekend.聽President Joe Biden earlier condemned Goldberg-Polin's killing, too, calling it "as tragic as it is reprehensible".

鈥淥n October 7th, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians.鈥�

The indictment names six Hamas leaders spread across the Gaza Strip, Qatar, and Lebanon: Ismail Haniyeh, the former chairman of the Hamas politburo; Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of Hamas; Mohammad Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, the former commander of al-Qassam Brigades, Marwan Issa, the former deputy commander of al-Qassam Brigades; Khaled Meshaal, head of the Hamas diaspora office; and Ali Baraka, head of Hamas鈥檚 unit for national relations abroad.

After the charges were filed, Issa and Deif were killed in Israeli airstrikes, and Haniyeh was assassinated during a visit to Hamas patron Iran.