Over 100 victims of Oct. 7 sue Iran, Syria, North Korea in US court

One hundred twenty-five victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel filed a lawsuit against Iran, Syria and North Korea Monday, saying their governments supplied the assailants with the funds, weapons and know-how needed to carry out the assault. 

"Plaintiffs in this case are the estates of individuals who were injured and/or killed in the Oct. 7 Attack, individuals who were physically and/or emotionally injured in the Attack, and immediate family members of individuals who were injured and/or killed in the Attack," read the lawsuit submitted to the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit was filed by the Anti-Defamation League and the law firm Crowell & Moring LLP. James Pasch, the ADL's senior director of national litigation, spoke to Al-Monitor about the filing. "We are talking about the largest, most violent murderous act of antisemitism since the Holocaust, and so many continue to suffer, particularly those who survived the attack and those displaced," he said, adding, "The victims of the attack and their family members deserve justice. The United States’ laws offer avenues to hold states sponsoring such attacks accountable."

The victims involved in the suit, all US citizens, were injured or killed in the attacks on the Nova music festival, Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Kibbutz Be’eri, Kibbutz Sa’ad, Kibbutz Kissufim, Kibbutz Erez, Kibbutz Nir Oz, Kibbutz Alumim, the Sufa military base and the town of Ofakim. The lawsuit seeks at least $4 billion in damages (one billion in compensatory damages and three billion in punitive) for the “coordination of extrajudicial killings, hostage-takings, and related horrors for which the defendants provided material support and resources.”

Iranian, Syrian, North Korean support for Hamas

The lawsuit claims that for years Iran, Syria and North Korea have been supporting Palestinian anti-Israeli and anti-American groups and that the three countries have provided Hamas with material support and resources for the Oct. 7 attack. 

Shortly after Oct. 7, Israel released footage of weapons seized from Hamas assailants that day. Some of them were produced in Iran and in North Korea, such as Iranian-made mortar rounds and North Korean rocket-propelled grenades. The lawsuit also details meetings and visits by Hamas seniors to Iran and Syria. It accuses the three countries of intentional infliction of emotional distress, wrongful death, aiding and abetting, assault and civil conspiracy. 

"Over the course of the lawsuit, we will be able to show that Iran, Syria and North Korea provided technological support, financial support and material support to Hamas, and aided them in committing this horrific attack," said Pasch. He explained that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act offers the possibility of suing countries of the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. "There are only four nations on that list, namely Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba. We are suing the first three," he noted.

Judging by past cases, these countries are very unlikely to show up for court proceedings. If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, they could seek compensation from a fund created by Congress in 2015 from seized assets, fines and other penalties leveled against those found to be doing business with a state sponsor of terrorism.

"This lawsuit aims to obtain some meaningful relief for their suffering," said Pasch. He explained that the three nations will be served and the ADL will present the case in court "with expert witnesses and affidavits from all the individual clients on what happened to them so the whole world hears their story."

Pasch stressed, "To us, to so many of these families, this is the most important part of this case. It is not just about the money, but about justice. Minutes after Oct. 7, we started seeing widespread denialism, lies about what occurred that day. This case will set the record straight about what occurred, who was responsible. We will tell the stories of the individuals for the world to hear. "

Last week, families of people killed at the Oct. 7 attack sued the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees, alleging that the UNRWA facilitated the assault by helping Hamas build up its infrastructure over the years.