The United States has brought criminal cases against Hamas senior heads led by Yahya Sinwar for the planning and implementation of the October 7 deadly raid on the southern Israel border that claimed the lives of 1,200 people – more than 40 of whom were Americans. These killings have been attributed to a larger campaign by the Justice System of the United States to ensure that the group Hamas faces justice. 

 The seven-count indictment alleges that Sinwar and at least five other senior Hamas officials planned the catastrophic attack, which was one of the worst in the organization’s history. These include conspiring to supply support for terrorist organizations operating in foreign states, conspiring to kill persons in the United States, and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Also, the indictment links Iran and Hezbollah with financing of the attacks and supplying of the rockets as well as money to Hamas. 

 Merrick Garland further noted the gravity of these charges and explained that they were just one part of the crackdown the US government has been conducting against the activities of Hamas. “The defendants, using weapons, political support and funding provided by the government of Iran and Hezbollah, have directed Hamas’s campaign to wipe out the state of Israel and to assassinate civilians to further this objective”, Garland said. 

 In this indictment, six persons are being named as the accused persons, out of whom three are already dead. The living defendants are Yahya Sinwar, who is thought to be in Gaza; Khaled Meshaal, head of the Hamas’ diaspora office in Doha, Qatar; and Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official in Lebanon. The deceased persons are former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh,, who was assassinated in July this year in Tehran. Mohammed Deif, the chief of the Hamas military wing who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in July and Marwan Issa, a deputy military commander who was killed in an airstrike in March. 

 Justice Department had laid charges against the six men in February but undisclosed during the latter hence anticipating to arrest Haniyeh. All these allegations were made when Haniyeh died. 

 The indictment of the October 7 massacre proclaims it as the most brutal terrorist attack in the history of Hamas, how the group’s operatives used trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats and paragliders to unleash one of the most gruesome campaigns of terror, rape, sexual assault, genocide, and point-blank machine gunning. 

 AG Garland also stated that the US officials had opened investigations into the death of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American kidnap and killed by Hamas on October 8, as part of a wider probe into the terrorist acts by the Hamas against Americans. 

 These charges have emerged at a time when the White House, with assistance from the Egyptians and Qataris, is planning a new truce and hostages deal ending a nearly 11-month conflict in Gaza. However, currently, Israeli Prime Minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to compromise or yield to pressure to bring about the resolution of the conflict even as the peace talks are ongoing.