Families of three murdered teenagers sue Hamas for over NIS 500m.
The lawsuit, brought to the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, demands NIS 520 million from the terror organization, which was responsible for organizing and carrying out the 2014 attack.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB, ALEX WINSTONGilad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah(photo credit: Courtesy)
The families of murdered teenagers Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, represented by Shurat Hadin, sued Hamas on Sunday in the Jerusalem District Court for around NIS 520 million in wrongful-death compensation.Although the civil lawsuit was filed against Hamas, which was behind the 2014 attack, the true purpose is to block the Palestinian Authority from transferring funds to Hamas.Shurat Hadin’s strategy is to press for the government to confiscate customs taxes from the PA if it continues to transfer funds to Hamas – at least until the compensation is paid.Previously, the two Hamas terrorists who actually murdered the teens were killed while resisting arrest, and the mastermind was captured and sentenced to life in prison.In addition, Shurat Hadin made some progress with a wrongful-death civil lawsuit in the US, but the case was eventually sidelined.In 2017, the NGO demanded that INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) arrest Saleh al-Arouri, who was known to direct many of Hamas’s terrorist attacks and was residing in Turkey at the time.According to a study conducted for the prosecution by Lt.-Col. Alon Eviatar, an expert on Palestinian affairs and a former adviser to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the PA transfers $50m.-$100m. monthly to Hamas. The money is transferred to government offices and other bodies in Gaza that Hamas controls, the report said.A statement released on behalf of the boys’ families said: “This lawsuit, of course, does not cure our pain, reduce our grief, or diminish our longing for our children. If the lawsuit has the power to deter even a little of these evil forces,” it will have been worth it.Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said: “This is a precedent-setting lawsuit. For the first time, funds from the Palestinian Authority will be confiscated for a terrorist attack carried out by Hamas.”“If the Palestinian Authority… continues to fund Hamas despite the foreclosure order, we will demand the compensation from the tax funds that the State of Israel transfers to the Palestinian Authority,” she said.On June 12, 2014, Yifrah, Shaer and Fraenkel were waiting at a hitchhiking spot next to Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion south of Jerusalem, waiting for rides home.They were abducted by Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha under the direction of Hamas mastermind Hussam Kawasme. Their bodies were discovered 18 days later in a shallow grave in Halhoul, near Hebron.Marwan Kawasme and Abu Aysha were located by Israeli security forces and killed in a shootout on September 23, 2014.On August 5, 2014, Hussam Kawasme, was arrested by Israeli security forces and eventually sentenced to life in prison.The kidnapping led the IDF to undertake Operation Brother’s Keeper in the West Bank against Hamas and was part of the escalation between the sides that led to the 2014 Gaza War.
