Secret files enable US lawsuits against Iran for October 7 attacks

A woman lights a candle during a commemoration of the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel at the the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary.
A woman lights a candle during a commemoration of the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel at the the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary.

A lawsuit was filed against Iran in Washington DC on Sunday by families of victims accusing the Islamic Republic of funding the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023.

The case was filed in the US District Court by families of those killed on October 7 in addition to families of those killed fighting in Gaza in the ensuing war sparked by the Iran-backed group which the US has designated as a terrorist organization.

The case details Iran’s funding of Hamas, one of many groups the Islamic Republic backs for the purpose of destroying the Jewish state.

In addition to documents seized in Gaza since the fighting, lawyers for the plaintiffs have obtained original documents which refer to a secret planning meeting of a small group of Hamas’s political and military leaders in December 2022.

The New York Times, which has independently reviewed the documents, said that during the meeting, Yahya Sinwar, the assassinated Gaza-based leader of the group, requested an additional $7 million a month from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to fund the attack, which he termed the “big project.”

Two lawyers in the case, Gary Owen and Lee Wolosky, said: “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.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is also named in the lawsuit as having been key in coordinating between Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran’s largest militia which launched attacks on Israel on October 8.

Other groups named in the lawsuit and also backed by Iran are Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, all of which have been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the US.

On October 7, the single most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust, over 1,100 mostly civilians were murdered, including 46 Americans. Another 251 people were taken hostage to Gaza, 101 remain, including seven Americans, three of whom are presumed dead.

A further 30 Americans have died fighting during the war in Gaza, according to the State Department, including Moshe Leiter, 39, whose father, Yechiel Leiter, is set to become Israeli ambassador to the United States next year.

It is not the first time such a case has been filed against Iran, which last year, the US named as the number one sponsor of state terrorism.

In 2011, lawyers in Manhattan representing families of victims of the September 11 attacks won a default judgment against Iran, Hezbollah, the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The lawsuit claimed Iranian officials helped the hijackers who flew jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In July, the Anti Defamation League launched a case on behalf of 125 victims’ families from October 7, against Iran, North Korea and Syria. ADL is working with the law firm, Crowell & Moring LLP.

A statement said: “Filed on July 1, 2024, the complaint states that the plaintiffs should receive compensation for their permanent damage, which would come from the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, a fund Congress created in 2015 to allow American victims of terrorism such as those in this case to obtain some meaningful relief for their suffering."