‘After 365 days, the State Department has failed to issue a bounty that would help bring these terrorists to justice,’ says Ted Budd
Hamas leader and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar—who went quiet for roughly two weeks, sparking rumors of his death—resurfaced on Monday, according to an Israeli official who spoke to Axios. A bipartisan group of senators is pushing for the United States to greet his reemergence with a $25 million bounty on his head.
Sinwar has resumed communications with his allies in Qatar after going dark for more than two weeks. The terror leader’s reappearance on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack is reigniting congressional concerns that the United States is not doing enough to hold him accountable for the brutal attack.
An Israeli official confirmed that Israel received information that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar resuned contact with the group’s representatives in Qatar in recent days and conveyed messages to them. The Israeli official said that it is not clear when exactly Sinwar sent the…
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 7, 2024
Though Sen. Ted Budd (R., N.C.) and 11 of his colleagues in the upper chamber petitioned the Biden-Harris State Department in late September to put a bounty out on Sinwar and other Hamas leaders, the agency has not responded. Now, Budd is admonishing the administration, pushing it to “help bring these terrorists to justice.”
“After 365 days, the State Department has failed to issue a bounty that would help bring these terrorists to justice,” he said in a statement shared with the Washington Free Beacon. “The fact that the Biden-Harris administration continues to leave tools unused shows a complete disregard for the safety and security of American citizens around the world.”
Such a bounty would come through the Rewards for Justice program, a congressionally funded initiative that offers cash for information on global terrorists and criminals. While the State Department is currently offering up to $10 million for information on top Hamas financiers, it has not gone after Sinwar and his closest associates.
The group of 12 lawmakers, which includes Nevada Democratic senator Jacky Rosen, initially requested “the immediate authorization of a reward of up to $25 million” under the program “for information that leads to the arrest of, locates, or disrupts the financial support for Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders or operatives responsible for the murder and kidnapping of Americans on October 7, 2023,” according to a copy of the previously unpublished letter.
The lawmakers also pressed the State Department to authorize a bounty for Mohammad Al-Masri, Hamas’s top military commander; Khaled Meshaal, the terror group’s exiled leader who is living in Qatar; and Ali Baraka, who helms Hamas’s foreign affairs bureau from Lebanon.
Each of these Hamas officials were named in a September Justice Department indictment charging them with orchestrating the Oct. 7 assault that killed more than 40 Americans and some 1,200 Israelis. It remains unclear if the Biden Harris administration will pressure Qatar, its top regional intermediary, to turn Meshaal over to authorities.
“We can think of no better way to fulfill congressional intent than to offer rewards for those Hamas leaders identified in the recently unsealed federal criminal complaint charging Yahya Sinwar, Mohammad Al-Masri, Khaled Meshaal, Ali Baraka, and others with terrorism, murder conspiracy, and sanctions-evasion charges related to October 7th,” the senators wrote.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the letter and its subsequent failure to respond.
Sinwar, who has evaded Israeli troops for a year now, is said to be “increasingly fatalistic,” according to the New York Times. He believes he “will not survive the war” and is rebuffing U.S.-led ceasefire proposals as a result, choosing to continue his war as Israel dismantles Hamas forces across the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar cut communications with his allies around Sept. 22 but has since resumed contact with Hamas representatives in Qatar, which provides shelter to the terror group’s top leaders, according to Israeli officials who spoke to Axios.
Meshaal, Hamas’s Doha-based leader, also released a video message on Monday celebrating the Oct. 7 attacks, though it is unclear when exactly the message was taped.
“The Al-Aqsa Flood has revived the Palestinian issue and united the Arab nation,” Meshaal reportedly said, referring to Hamas’s official name for the terror operation. “Victory is near; we want jihad through people and weapons.”
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