Max Matza
The United States has prosecuted key Hamas leaders, including Yahya Shinwar, for instigating the attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
The US Department of Justice has announced seven different indictments against six Hamas members. They are accused of murdering US citizens, financing terrorism and using weapons of mass destruction.
The criminal case relates to alleged attacks carried out by Hamas over the past few decades, including a deadly attack in southern Israel nearly a year ago.
The US has taken such a step in order to hold accountable the leaders of the October 7 attacks.
Three of those prosecuted by the US are believed to have died. Sinwar is believed to be hiding inside an underground tunnel in Gaza.
In a video statement on Tuesday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed that the defendants had been involved in “a decade of murdering US citizens, endangering US security and financing it”.
The U.S. alleges that the group of defendants “also led the killing of civilians for the stated purpose of Hamas’s destruction of Israel.”
He accused Hamas of “killing entire families”, “killing senior citizens and children, and sexually assaulting women, including rape” during the October 7 attack.
He accused Hamas of “killing more than 1,200 people” during the attack and “committing the largest genocide against Jews since the Holocaust.”
Other Hamas leaders prosecuted by the US include the group’s former leader Ismail Haniyeh, Marwan Issa, the deputy head of the organization’s military unit, Khalid Mashal, the group’s leader outside Gaza, Mohammed Def and Ali Baraka.
The charge against them includes allegations of killing people by placing bombs in public places, conspiring to finance terrorism and supplying goods to terrorism by killing people.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s complaint states that the defendants are “absconding or deceased.”
Hania, Isa and Def are believed to have died in Israeli attacks in the past months.
The US attorney general’s office cited in the indictment that 42 US citizens were killed and 10 were taken hostage in last year’s attack, including Hersh Goldberg-Paulin, a dual citizen of the US and Israel, who was recently killed by Hamas.
“We are investigating Hersh’s murder. Every act by Hamas that brutally kills Americans is an act of terrorism,” Garland said.
If convicted, those charged could face life in prison or the death penalty under US law.
It has been found that charges were filed against them in February.
But it was being withheld until Tuesday in the hope that some of them could be arrested, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported, citing US officials.
US President Joe Biden called the killing of Hersh Goldberg-Paulin “tragic and reprehensible”.
“Make no mistake, the leaders of Hamas must pay for this crime,” Biden said
Meanwhile, the UK has defended its decision to freeze the export of some equipment and weapons it has been selling to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders criticized the decision, saying it would benefit Hamas.
The UK expressed concern about the possible use of the material in Gaza.
Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, killing nearly 1,200 people. Among them were Nepali students and foreign nationals.
After the attack, Hamas took another 251 hostages to Gaza. One of them is believed to be a Nepali citizen.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, more than 40,000 people have died since then in Israel’s military operation in Gaza. Among the dead, the number of women and children is said to be significant.
