Families of American victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Iran on Sunday for its role behind the devastating Hamas-led assault on the Jewish state.
The plaintiffs also include families of American-Israeli IDF soldiers who were killed in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and Americans who were wounded or suffered mental anguish on Oct. 7, The New York Times reported.
The lawsuit incorporates Hamas documents seized in Gaza that point to the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the preparations and funding of the deadliest single-day attack in Israel’s history, which resulted in some 1,200 killed and 251 hostages taken to the Gaza Strip.
Some of these documents were previously released in the media, but according to the Times, the plaintiffs have also obtained original documents that refer to a secret meeting of Hamas leaders that was held in December 2022.
During the meeting, Yahya Sinwar, who was then the “military” leader of Hamas in Gaza, asked Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for an additional $7 million per month to help carry out the Oct. 7 attack, referred to as the “big project,” the Times reported.
The lawsuit further accuses the IRGC of coordinating preparation for the attack between Hamas and Iran’s Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah.
The families of the victims are seeking compensatory damages under the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and Anti-Terrorism Act, and are represented by prominent lawyers.
“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” lawyers Lee Wolosky and Gary M. Osen said in a statement.
Wolosky served as the U.S. State Department’s envoy for negotiating transfers of detainees from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, under the Obama administration. Osen represented victims of the Nazis in the past.
This is not the first lawsuit filed against Iran for terrorist activities. Families of victims have sued the mullah regime repeatedly, but Tehran never attempted to defend itself in court.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorists murdered 46 Americans, including children, and abducted 12 Americans into the Gaza Strip. According to the Times, seven Americans remain in captivity, though three are presumed dead.
More than 30 IDF troops holding both U.S. and Israeli citizenship have been killed in action since the war started on Israel’s southern and northern fronts 13 and a half months ago.
