They are suing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, and more for the attack. Iran, Syria, and North Korea are also listed as defendants, and they do not have sovereign immunity because each has been designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

“The world must never forget what happened on October 7,” said David and Hazel Brief, whose son, Yona, was killed in the Oct. 7 attack. “Our son’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. We are hopeful that this type of litigation will 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.”

This suit relies on two federal statutes that allow Americans to seek justice against state sponsors of terrorism and terrorist organizations themselves. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act allows victims to sue state sponsors of terrorism, while the Anti-Terrorism Act enables lawsuits against foreign terrorist organizations.

Hamas, PIJ, and other Gaza-based terrorist groups conducted the largest terrorism attack in Israel’s history on Oct. 7, 2023, when they overpowered the border and rampaged through nearby communities, killing approximately 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others. The groups still hold about 50 of the hostages, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

“The victims of the October 7 massacre deserve accountability and redress,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, said in a statement. “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.”

The lawsuit calls for no less than a billion dollars in compensatory damages and no less than three billion dollars in punitive damages against the FSIA defendants for the victims.

The ADL and Crowell teamed up last year to file a similar lawsuit, which targeted Iran, Syria, and North Korea, alleging that they provided material support to Hamas that enabled the attack. This case is still ongoing.

Crowell has represented victims of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut bombings in 1983 and 1984, the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998, and UTA Flight 772 in 1989.

“State sponsors of terrorism should not be able to avoid the consequences of their heinous acts
by hiding behind the proxies they materially support,” Aryeh Portnoy, lead counsel on the case, said.

The Israeli military has decimated the Gaza Strip as it seeks to demilitarize Hamas and remove it from power in the enclave. But in trying to achieve those goals, they have killed more than 60,000 people, civilians and combatants.

Several international organizations have accused the Israeli military of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, which both the U.S. and the Israelis strongly dispute.

A commission set up by the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report earlier this week that found Israeli forces’ actions had met the legal criteria for genocide.

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The team alleged that Israel had met four of the five criteria established in the Genocide Convention to assess whether genocide occurred: killing members of a group, causing them serious mental or bodily harm, imposing measures meant to prevent births in the group, and deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the “physical destruction” of the group.

The committee only assessed that Israel hadn’t met the criteria of implementing a forcible transfer of the Palestinian population. It only takes meeting one of these five criteria for the genocide designation.

The Trump administration is trying to figure out how to secure the release of the hostages and end the war, but Israel is beginning a new offensive in Gaza City, one of the last remaining Hamas strongholds in the enclave.