Israeli-American victims of Hamas terror take Iran to federal court over October 7

A group of 67 US and Israeli nationals have filed a lawsuit to a federal US court, asserting that Iran stands behind the planning and financing of the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on October 7, which left some 1,200 murdered, 5,000 injured, and roughly 250 kidnapped.

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on Wednesday seeking restitution from Tehran for the grievous harm they suffered – including death, dismemberment, burns, abduction, and various other forms of torture and physical trauma – as a result of the attack on October 7.

The plaintiffs added that, though nothing can bring their loved ones back to life or fully compensate them for the horrible experiences they went through, a decision by the court, along with the subsequent enforcement against Iranian assets globally, could establish a financial source from which the plaintiffs may start to reconstruct and reintroduce a measure of normalcy and humanity back into their lives.

The formal complaint, obtained by The Jerusalem Post, provides 12  factual allegations which seek to prove the Islamic Republic’s liability, responsibility, and endorsement for the heinous acts of October 7; with the three claims for relief procured by the plaintiffs being: material support for acts of terrorism, negligence, and aiding and abetting.

The complaint features horrendous graphic pictures and screenshots from various scenes of the massacre, listing the events which unfolded during the carnage, including the launching of thousands of rockets into Israeli residential areas, the massacre at the Nova music festival in Re’im, the breaching of armed terrorists into residential communities, and the various cases of murder, arson and rape in different methods; all the while mentioning each of the plaintiffs’ relations to the murdered, wounded and kidnapped.

Several chapters of the complaint seek to establish Iran’s extremist nature, as well as its quest for hegemony, and its operation and guidance of terror-designated organizations across the Middle East, including the aggressors, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad  (PIJ).

The complaint also claims that rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia was one of the reasons for which Iranian leaders met with Hamas and PIJ leaders between April and June 2023, encouraging them to carry out further acts of terrorism against Israel. It also mentions that a war room was established in Beirut by August 2023 and that military training for the terrorists was hosted by Iran during that same period.

It also claims that an October 2 meeting saw Tehran provide a green light for Hamas, PIJ, and the other Iran-backed groups to launch the pre-planned attack against Israel, using Iranian intelligence, training, and military supplies.

One example brought in the complaint includes the December 27 statement by an official spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Ramezan Sharif, quoted by Iran’s state-sponsored news agency ISNA, in which Iran took credit for the October 7 attacks as “acts of revenge for the assassination of [Iranian] Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani by the US and the Zionists” – a statement which was then quickly disavowed following much backlash.

What does the Iranian government think of the lawsuit?

Dr. Raz Zimmt, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and a research fellow at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University, comments that for the time being, there is no talk about the complaint in Tehran, nor is it plausible that a significant response would be issued, as lawsuits such as this one are being filed against Iran from time to time; especially as Iran has more important things to deal with right now.

Zimmt adds that there would be no reason for Iran to openly take responsibility for the massacre. “Indeed, Iran has undoubtedly been involved in aid and support to Hamas for years through training, technology, and financial support,” he comments, “and one should not rule out the possibility that within the framework of coordination and consultations in the past couple of years between senior Hamas officials and senior officials in the IRGC and Hezbollah, the option of implementing such a plan was also discussed. But in my estimation, Iran was surprised at the very least by the timing of the action, if not by other details.”

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli attorney, human rights activist, and founder of Shurat HaDin – Israeli Law Center, said that for the past 20 years, US citizens who have been affected by terror attacks in Israel carried out by Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah have been filing suits against terror-sponsoring governments such as Iran and Syria.

Successful cases were usually enforced through the confiscation of Iranian assets still left on US soil from the time of the Shah, including bank accounts, buildings, securities, and even business between US companies and deals with the Iranian government.

As for the process of proving the Iranian involvement in these acts, Darshan-Leitner adds that, as opposed to cases of a lone attacker who doesn’t always state which organization sent him, and in which a thorough investigation is required, in this case the perpetrators of the massacre are clearly Hamas and the PIJ. So, what is needed here is to bring experts from academia or security to prove Iranian involvement in the funding, guiding or training of these organizations; a claim which has been proven many times in the past.

Darshan-Leitner also commented that this is a civil procedure and not a criminal one, meaning that there will be no conviction in the end. She believes that due to the large number of plaintiffs, it is probable that the hearing of this case will take several years; but in the end, a ruling will be issued affirming that Iran was indeed responsible for the massacre, and granting the plaintiffs compensation in millions of dollars, perhaps even billions.