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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
US victims of October 7 attacks file a new lawsuit against Hamas, | |
Syria, Iran and North Korea | |
By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:24 PM EDT, Thu September 18, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
A prominent Jewish advocacy group filed a lawsuit on Thursday against | |
Hamas and other armed groups, as well as Iran, Syria and North Korea, | |
seeking billions in damages over the October 7 attacks in Israel. | |
The suit, brought on behalf of more than 140 plaintiffs, including US | |
victims and their family members, was filed by the Anti-Defamation | |
League (ADL) and law firm Crowell & Moring in the US District Court in | |
Washington, DC, just weeks before the two-year anniversary of the | |
attack. | |
The lawsuit seeks at least $7 billion in damages from the armed groups | |
and from the three foreign countries, which it accuses of providing | |
Hamas with “support and resources” for the terror attacks. | |
The lawsuit appears to be largely symbolic in nature and it’s not | |
clear how those bringing the case plan to serve papers on foreign | |
states or Hamas, an Islamist movement that has been majorly diminished | |
and had much of its leadership eliminated during the war in Gaza. | |
Many of the plaintiffs and defendants are also parties in by the ADL in | |
the same court last year against Iran, Syria and North Korea, which | |
similarly accused the states of providing support to Hamas. The | |
plaintiffs in that case were able to serve papers to Iran with | |
diplomatic help from Switzerland, but they have not successfully served | |
Syria or North Korea and none of the countries have responded in court. | |
“The victims of the October 7 massacre deserve justice, | |
accountability and redress,” said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt. | |
“This lawsuit seeks to do that by holding those responsible for the | |
carnage accountable, from the state sponsors who provided the funding, | |
weapons, and training to the terrorist organizations who carried out | |
these unspeakable atrocities.” | |
Among the plaintiffs in the case are David and Hazel Brief, whose son | |
Yona, died from injuries sustained during the attack. They said in a | |
statement provided by the ADL that Yona’s life was “senselessly cut | |
short.” | |
“We believe it is critical that those responsible for the horrific | |
terror inflicted that day are held accountable in a court of law, to | |
ensure the record is clear as to who helped support, plan and carry out | |
the violence that day,” they added. | |
During the October 7, 2023 attack, Hamas and several other militant | |
groups stormed the and nearby communities in southern Israel, killed | |
more than 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage. Nearly two years | |
later, have been returned alive to Israel, but the Israeli government | |
says 47 are still held captive inside Gaza. 25 of those remaining have | |
been declared dead, while 20 are believed to be alive; the status of | |
the others is uncertain. | |
Over the course of the war, Israeli forces have killed nearly 65,000 | |
Palestinians and injured more than 164,000, according to the | |
Palestinian Ministry of Health. This week, Israel announced it had | |
begun a ground incursion into Gaza City and an independent UN inquiry | |
concluded for the first time that against Palestinians in Gaza, which | |
its government has denied. | |
Iran, Syria and North Korea have been designated by the US State | |
Department as “state sponsors of terrorism.” The designation is | |
applied by the secretary of state to countries found to have | |
“repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” | |
Foreign states are typically allowed immunity from prosecution in the | |
US under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. But the law makes | |
exceptions for state sponsors of terrorism, as well as for “personal | |
injury or death that was caused by an act of torture, extrajudicial | |
killing, aircraft sabotage, hostage taking” or “material support” | |
of these activities by state officials. | |
In their statement, David and Hazel Brief said they hoped that the | |
litigation would “help prevent attacks like these in the future, so | |
that no other families have to go through losing a loved one as a | |
result of such violence.” | |
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