On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced charges against Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. Sinwar is one of the masterminds behind the horrific Oct. 7th massacre. He is also one of the last Hamas senior officials left standing and the current leader of the terrorist organization.
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In the video posted, Attorney General Garland mentioned the murder of American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
“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,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “On October 7th, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians. This weekend, we learned that Hamas murdered an additional six people they had kidnapped and held captive for nearly a year, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23 year old Israeli American. We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of Hamas’ brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism. The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations. These actions will not be our last.”
Others charged were:
-Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas. Deceased.
-Mohammad Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, the commander in chief of the al-Qassam Brigades. Deceased.
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-Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of the al-Qassam Brigades. Deceased.
-Khaled Meshaal, also known as Abu al-Waleed, the head of Hamas’ diaspora office.
-Ali Baraka, 57, Hamas’ head of National Relations Abroad.
Related: Senior Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh Assassinated on Iranian Soil
Related: IDF Eliminates Oct 7th Mastermind, Senior Hamas Leader Mohammad Deif
The statement from Garland is one of the most condemnatory and lengthy statements against Hamas made on behalf of the Biden administration. It comes after Biden made a reckless comment on Monday that Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a deal.
In the statement, Garland claims that Hamas has been funded by anonymous cryptocurrency donations:
Hamas raises money to fund its terrorist activities through a variety of methods, including by soliciting and receiving cryptocurrency payments, advertising the ostensible anonymity of such transactions. Since 2019, Hamas’ military wing has used social media and other platforms to call for cryptocurrency contributions from supporters abroad, including in the United States, to Hamas-controlled virtual wallets, explicitly acknowledging that those payments would be used to fund Hamas’ campaign of violence. Through these mechanisms, Hamas has received tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency payments to fund its activities.
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While that may be true, it leaves out a key detail that UNWRA, the UN refugee organization meant to help stabilize the area, became embedded with Hamas with even its staff perpetrating crimes on Oct. 7. The U.S. has been the largest contributor of UNWRA, giving it $7.3 billion since 1950. It is largely perceived (correctly) that Hamas has used these funds to build their underground city of tunnels and bombard Israel with rockets on a daily basis, while the senior leaders live in luxury in Qatar.
Sinwar is the last man standing of the core group of senior leaders responsible for Oct. 7. He is rumored to be hiding with 22 handcuffed hostages surrounding him.