The systematic execution of Nova music festival goers, the abduction of Shani Louk's body and of Shiri Bibas and her two little boys, firing on an ambulance and abducting elderly Yafa Adar are among the atrocities detailed in the 38-page indictment against Hamas leaders for the October 7 massacre in southern Israel, announced on Tuesday by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Garland named Hamas' Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, who have already been killed, and Khaled Meshaal, Ali Baraka and Marwan Issa, who are still at large, in the charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice after the massacre on October 7.
4 View gallery
Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Mashal, Mohammed Deif, Ali Baraka, Marwan Issah
(Photo: Osama Faisa / AP, IDF)
The indictment unsealed on Tuesday by the Justice Department contains seven charges in total including: Conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death; Conspiracy to provide material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death; Conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals; Conspiracy to bomb a place of public use resulting in death; Conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death; Conspiracy to finance terrorism; Conspiracy to violate the international emergency economic powers act to finance terrorism.
The indictment details the chain of events, background on the Hamas organization and also the atrocities of the October 7 attack, including the massacre in the Nova music festival and the incursion into the communities along the Israel-Gaza border, where civilians, including American citizens, were murdered. It lists at least 43 U.S. citizens murdered and at least 10 missing or abducted.
"On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas committed its most violent, large-scale terrorist attack to date – the October 7 Hamas massacres. Hamas targeted civilian populations with a barrage of rockets, before waves of Hamas terrorists breached the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, infiltrated Israel, and launched attacks on civilians, by land, sea and air. Hamas sent thousands of armed fighters into southern Israel, where they carried out the massacres of over a thousand people and the kidnappings of more than 200 others," the DOJ said.
4 View gallery
Hamas terrorists abduct the body of Shani Louk from the Nova music festival on October 7
(Photo: Ali Mahmud / AP)
"Armed Hamas operatives attacked and shot civilians, including children, sometimes with machine guns and sometimes at point blank range, and weaponized sexual violence against Israeli women, including through rape and genital mutilation," according to the indictment.
The section of the indictment pertaining to the Nova music festival described how: "a group of more than 50 Hamas terrorists attacked the festival attendees with machine guns and other weapons. As attendees attempted to escape, Hamas terrorists methodically executed large numbers of them. Large numbers of festival attendees fled from the initial wave of rocket attacks into protective shelters located along a nearby major road. Hamas terrorists systemically assaulted the shelters with machine guns and grenades, killing both those still seeking refuge and those already inside, including multiple American citizens," the indictment read.
"In addition, Hamas terrorists took hostage an unknown number of victims. Videos and images of the attacks, including of individuals being taken hostage, were posted contemporaneously on social media through what appear to be accounts used by Hamas terrorists and through accounts belonging to Hamas’ victims themselves, as Hamas terrorists had stolen victims’ electronic devices and, using those devices, had taken over victims’ social media accounts. In one such video that has been widely circulated, Hamas terrorists paraded an apparently unconscious and largely unclothed woman in the back of a pickup truck, while Hamas terrorists chanted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”). Approximately 260 victims have been identified as having been murdered by Hamas terrorists during the Re’im Music Festival attack, including multiple American citizens."
It describes the Hamas assault on Kibbutz Be'eri where the terrorists went from house to house killing residents, including the family of Karmel Gat, who was abducted with her sister Rimon and was executed by the terrorists last week.
"Hamas terrorists kidnapped an entire family, including a grandmother, mother, father and three-year-old daughter, from their home in Be’eri. The grandmother and another adult female relative were separated from the mother, father and daughter, who were forced into a vehicle with four armed Hamas terrorists who proceeded to attempt to drive the three victims into Gaza. Shortly before the vehicle reached the Gaza border, the family managed to jump out of the vehicle. Hamas terrorists pursued them firing automatic weapons. The father and daughter managed to evade the attackers and eventually returned to 29 safety, but the mother’s whereabouts remain unknown. Hamas terrorists executed the grandmother, together with other older women from the kibbutz. One such victim, an American citizen, was executed after having been abducted from her home and bound by Hamas terrorists."
On Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the indictment reads: "On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists broke through a wall of the community. Those terrorists then killed members of the kibbutz’s volunteer security force, and spread out in all directions, killing residents and burning homes as they went. Images of deceased victims of the Hamas attack on Kfar Aza showed individuals with their hands bound, appearing to indicate that Hamas terrorists had restrained and then executed them, as well as showing children that Hamas terrorists had murdered in the kibbutz. Hamas terrorists took hostage multiple residents of the kibbutz, including at least one American. In one image that has been widely circulated, an elderly female resident of Kfar Aza is shown being transported into Gaza in a cart-like vehicle driven by a Hamas terrorist, while another terrorist behind the victim brandishes what appears to be an AK47-type machine gun and other terrorists are gathered behind the vehicle."
4 View gallery
Attorney General Merrick Garland unseals an indictment against Hamas leaders
(Photo: Getty Images)
The DOJ document goes on to describe the terrorist attacks on other communities, including Sufa, Kerem Shalom and Zikim.
"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," Garland said.
He said Hamas was assisted by the government of Iran and by Hezbollah in their effort to destroy Israel and murder civilians.