By Adam Goldamn and Ronen Bergman
Families of American victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack and those killed fighting in the Gaza Strip sued Iran on Sunday, accusing it of supporting the single deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, details Iran’s funding of Hamas and its embrace of other terrorist organizations seeking to destroy Israel. The lawsuit relies, at least partly, on Hamas documents that were seized in Gaza and published in the news media, including The New York Times.
But lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case also appear to have obtained original documents that refer to a secret planning meeting of a small group of Hamas’ political and military leaders in December 2022.
During the meeting, Yahya Sinwar, then the leader of the group in Gaza, requested an additional $7 million a month from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to fund the attack on Oct. 7, known as the “big project.”
The Times has independently reviewed a set of the documents that refer to the $7 million, including details about the way Hamas’ leadership works and the preparations that went into its attack.
The lawsuit also mentions the role of the Revolutionary Guard in coordinating between Hamas and Hezbollah, a regional ally, in preparation for the attack, which the Times has reported.
The groups named in the lawsuit — Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — have all been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the United States.
Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Hamas’ campaign against Israel, saying, “The depravity of Hamas’ crimes is almost unspeakable.”
The families involved in the lawsuit include those of Americans who were killed, injured or suffered mental anguish on Oct. 7.
Forty-six Americans, including children, were killed on Oct. 7. Hamas also took about 250 people hostage, including 12 Americans. Seven Americans remain in Gaza but three are presumed dead.
The lawsuit also includes Americans killed in combat in Gaza or northern Israel. More than 30 American Israeli citizens have been killed while fighting for the Israeli military, a State Department official said.
One of them was Moshe Leiter, 39, a reservist in an elite naval unit. His father, Yechiel Leiter, is set to become Israeli ambassador to the United States next year.
Other American victims included Danielle Waldman, 24, who was born in Palo Alto, California. She and her boyfriend were among at least 360 people killed at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. She was apparently ambushed in her car, which was riddled with bullet holes and stained with blood. She met her boyfriend while serving in the Israeli army.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and Anti-Terrorism Act. It was filed by a group of prominent lawyers, including Gary M. Osen, who once represented Nazi victims, and Lee Wolosky.
Wolosky served during the Obama administration as the State Department’s envoy for negotiating transfers of detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“Hard, incontrovertible evidence of who funded Hamas is now becoming available in the form of documents, bank records and the like, and we intend to hold those parties accountable, in the courts of the United States or elsewhere, for however long it takes” Wolosky and Osen said in a statement.
Claimed victims of terrorist attacks led by Iran have repeatedly sued the country in U.S. courts over the years. Iran never shows up to defend itself, and the plaintiffs often win default judgments.
In 2011, lawyers representing families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks won a default judgment against Iran, Hezbollah, the Taliban and al-Qaida in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court that claimed Iranian officials helped the hijackers who flew jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
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