US charges Hamas leader, militants over Oct. 7 Israel attack
A view of a poster in Iranian capital Tehran, featuring Hamas' new political chief Yahya Sinwar on August 13, 2024. The Arabic and Hebrew posters displayed in Palestine Square (Felestin Square) include the phrase, 'When a great person is lost, anothe
WASHINGTON - Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other militants face criminal charges in connection with the Oct. 7, 2023, rampage in Israel, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The charges were listed in a criminal complaint filed in New York City.
The charges include conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death.
Netanyahu vows Hamas will pay "heavy price"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas will pay a "heavy price" for the executions of six hostages. Avi Mayer, the former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post joined LiveNOW from FOX's Josh Breslow to discuss the latest developments out of the Middle East.
"The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a video statement. "These actions will not be our last."
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Who is Yahya Sinwar?
Sinwar was appointed the overall head of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and sits atop Israel’s most-wanted list. He is believed to have spent most of the past 10 months living in tunnels under Gaza, and it is unclear how much contact he has with the outside world.
Who are the other militants charged?
Other Hamas leaders charged include Haniyeh; Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’ armed wing in Gaza who helped plan last year's attack; Khaled Mashaal, another Haniyeh deputy and a former leader of the group; Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka.
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What happened on October 7?
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in their Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war in Gaza which is now in its 11th month and has killed more than 40,000 people, according to Gaza health officials.
Israeli-American among 6 hostages found dead in Gaza
Israel Defense Forces identified the dead hostages as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33; who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was abducted from the nearby farming community of Be’eri, according to IDF. IDF says Hamas still holds "101 hostages in Gaza, including women and children." All six were reported to have been killed before the arrival of Israeli forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel plans to hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages.
Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 15 miles from the Gaza border. In some places, they gunned down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response.
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Israel declared war in response to Hamas’ unprecedented cross-border attack. It was the deadliest attack in Israel’s history and the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust.
The latest on the Israel-Hamas war
Large protests continued in Tel Aviv, Israel, for a third consecutive night Tuesday as hundreds took to the street to call on the government to reach a cease-fire deal that would bring home the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
The protests have come after the Israeli military said six hostages were killed by their captors in Gaza just as troops were closing in on their location. Many Israelis blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the mounting number of dead hostages and are calling for a cease-fire agreement to free the remaining hostages.
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Where do talks of a ceasefire stand?
The U.S. says it is working on a new cease-fire and hostage deal proposal with its Egyptian and Qatari counterparts. And the United Nations Security Council plans to convene on Wednesday to discuss the war.
National security spokesperson John Kirby said the "executions" of six hostages, including one American, by Hamas, "underscores the sense of urgency" in the talks. Kirby declined to frame the latest proposal as a "final" or "take-it-or-leave-it" offer to the parties, but he also declined to speculate on what might happen if the latest press for a deal wasn’t successful.
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Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel would maintain a military presence along the entirety of Gaza’s border with Egypt, Kirby noted that Israel had already agreed that, as part of the first phase of a cease-fire deal, it would pull its troops from densely populated areas, including in the so-called Philadelphi corridor. That has emerged as a late obstacle to an agreement.