OCTOBER 7 ATROCITIES

As Israel celebrated the last day of the 8-day Sukkot festival, called Simchat Torah, thousands of Israelis and tourists celebrated, by attending an all-night Rave Music and Dance Festival at a nature reserve located just north of the Gaza Strip territory.  At 6:25 AM, the designated terrorist organizations, under the command and leadership of designated foreign terrorist organization Hamas, lead other “specially designated global terrorists” Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Maoist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the National Resistance Brigades and others launched a massive rocket barrage, firing at least 4,300 rockets at the festival and into the towns and kibbutzim bordering the Gaza Strip. The terrorists breached the border defenses in 119 places, and over 7,000 terrorists (including hundreds of United Nations (UNRWA) employees) streamed over the border, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in 21 communities, and on roads and fields where thousands were fleeing the bloodshed. The infiltration was executed using trucks, pickup trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats, and powered paragliders.

In total, 1,175 people were killed (and 3.400 physically wounded) in the attacks, 796 Israeli civilians, including 38 children (the youngest 10 months old, and 25 were over the age of 80), 71 of which were foreign nationals, and 379 members of the security forces. 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded while attending the Nova music festival. 247 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. The terrorists perpetrated systematic and widespread mass rapes, sexual assaults, torture and mutilation of bodies in multiple locations.  Over 300,000 Israelis were displaced as a result of the attacks.

The terrorists uploaded, in real time, videos and photographs of the carnage, identifying themselves and their organizations, and enthusiastically praising and claiming responsibly for the atrocities.  Thousands of videos were uploaded by Gazans recording the parading of hostages and bodies of murdered, throughout the streets of Gaz and other towns the Gaza Strip.

Hamas did not carry out these atrocities without assistance. It was aided and abetted by, among others, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Arab Republic of Syria, designated foreign terrorist organization Hizballah, and current or former senior officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (“UNRWA”), as well as UNRWA itself, who collectively spent over a decade prior to the October 7 Attack helping Hamas build up the terror infrastructure and personnel that were necessary to carry out the October 7 Attack, including by knowingly providing Hamas with the U.S. dollars in cash that it needed to pay smugglers for weapons, explosives, and other terror materiel.  In addition, Binance Holdings Ltd. the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, knowingly and illegally laundered millions of dollars for Hamas.

MM-LAW has filed three lawsuits against the Hamas co—conspirators and aiders and abettors of the atrocities and is preparing to file additional lawsuits in Israel, the United States and other jurisdictions.

Estate of Tamar Kedem Siman Tov et al. v. United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) et al. United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1:24-cv-04765

On June 24, 2024, MM-LAW filed a lawsuit against UNRWA, its Director General and Deputy Director General, the two prior Director Generals and Deputy Directors General and the Director of UNRWA’s New York office on behalf of over 100 non-U.S. citizens, under the Alien Tort Statute (28 U.S.C. §1350) (the”ATS”) and International Law (the “UNRWA ATS Lawsuit”). Plaintiffs allege that Defendants aided and abetted genocide, weaponization of mass rape and violent sexual assault, torture, hostage taking and crimes against humanity, by actions taken by the defendants from their headquarters in New York, knowingly providing to Hamas in Gaza :

Access to and safe-harbor in UNRWA owned and funded facilities, including (but not limited to) schools to be used for weapons storage, command and control operations, and planning a/staging areas for the October 7 attacks..

Providing Hamas access to, and safe harbor in UNRWA property for launching rockets directed at civilian targets in Israel, including rockets launched as part of the barrage intended as a diversion and distraction to Israeli defenses on the morning of the October 7 Attack.

Despite knowing of Hamas’ use of UNRWA premises, consistently taking the position with Israel that UNRWA premises were inviolate, thus making them safe havens for terrorists and their materiel and preventing Israel from disabling Hamas’ terror infrastructure prior to the October 7 Attack.

Having the schools they operate in Gaza use Hamas-approved textbooks, curriculum and teachers’ guides that indoctrinate children from a young age into a death-cult ideology of hatred and genocide, predictably producing the next generation of Hamas recruits willing to commit terrorist acts

Allowing Hamas’ youth wing al-Kutla direct access to UNRWA schools and students to organize in-school and after-school programs to propagandize, indoctrinate, and recruit future terrorists, with the encouragement of Hamas-affiliated teaching staff;

Permitting local employees on UNRWA’s payroll to simultaneously be active Hamas members, many of whom personally participated in the atrocities of the October 7 Attack

Deliberately paying its local personnel in the form of cash US dollars, requiring them to turn to Hamas-affiliated moneychangers to receive the local currency (Israeli shekels) they actually need to be able to make purchases, thus predictably generating millions of dollars per month of additional income for Hamas from the spread charged by the moneychangers – income that was not merely denominated in dollars but was in cash; and

By doing so, providing Hamas with access to hard U.S currency, which Hamas desperately needed to pay its illicit weapons procurement network to smuggle into Gaza vast quantities weapons, ammunition, explosives, rockets, and other materials needed by Hamas to perpetrate the October 7 Attack as well as numerous other genocidal attacks on civilians

At the request of the United Nations, the U.S. Department of Justice initially intervened in the lawsuit and requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit under the theory that UNRWA and the individual defendants have immunity under the treaty entered into by the United States and the United Nations. 

After receipt and study of MM~LAW memoranda of law, the United States government reversed its position and notified the court that the united States now believes that none of the defendants have immunity from the lawsuit and claims of aiding and abetting genocide, weaponization of mass rape and violent sexually assault, torture, hostage taking  and crimes against humanity brought by MM-Law’s clients,

Liat Atzili et al. v. United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) et al. United States District Court for the Southern District of New York,1:25-cv-05677.

On September 9, 2025, MM~LAW filed a second lawsuit against UNRWA and its directors in New York (“the UNRWA ATA Lawsuit”) under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act (18 U.S.C. §2333) (the “ATA”), on behalf of 236 U.S. citizens, killed or injured in the October 7 Attacks. While the ATS applies only to claims brought by non-American victims of violations of international law, the ATA applies only to claims brought by American victims of acts of international terrorism. In this lawsuit, plaintiffs allege that UNRWA and the other defendants, conspired with Hamas and others to perpetrate the October 7 attacks, as well as aided and abetted and provided material and substantial assistance to Hamas, enabling Hamas and the other terrorists to perpetrate the October 7 atrocities. 

Many of the allegations in the UNRWA ATA Lawsuit are similar or identical to the allegations in the UNRWA ATS Lawsuit (see allegations in the summary of the UNRWA ATS Lawsuit above), additional evidence and allegations are added, including evidence of numerous meetings between individual UNRWA directors with Hamas leaders, statements by those directors that UNRWA and Hamas are “partners,” and acknowledgements that these meetings and planning sessions need to be kept clandestine.

For example, the following allegation is set forth in the initial paragraphs of the UNRWA ATA Lawsuit:

“In the years leading up to the October 7 Attack, UNRWA executives repeatedly sought to collaborate with Hamas and repeatedly stated their desire to cooperate with Hamas in support of Hamas’ goals. Defendant Krähenbühl, as Commissioner General of UNRWA, went so far as to tell Hamas to keep the extent of that “partnership” secret so that international donors would not reduce UNRWA’s funding. Quoted in full below, Defendant Krähenbühl stated:

I hope … that the spirit of partnership prevails among us in our meetings and not be public because this is a challenge to us and our credibility, and what is more dangerous is what this could constitute in terms of a loss of trust between the funding countries and UNRWA, which may move towards reducing or stopping its funding.”

In addition, plaintiffs also allege that UNREWA and its directors aided and abetted genocide, crimes against humanity, weaponization of mass rape and sexual assault, and torture.

Plaintiffs are in the process of serving the summons and lawsuit on the defendants, after which they will be obliged to respond to the lawsuit.

Yisrael Weisner et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran et al. United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 1:24-cv-03244.

On May 9, 2025, MM~LAW filed a lawsuit against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp., Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Hamas), Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Syria Arab Republic.  Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (28 U.S.C. §1605A) for claims against Iran, Syria and their agencies, and under the Anti-Terrorism Act (18 U.S.C. §2333) against the terrorist organizations.

Plaintiffs allege that Iran participated in the October 7 atrocities by, among other acts, financing, supporting, and approving the operation as part of a broader strategy known as the “Axis of Resistance,” designed to encircle Israel with a “Ring of Fire” composed of heavily armed Iranian proxies, including Hamas, PIJ, the PFLP, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

While Hezbollah has long been Iran’s most loyal proxy, Hamas and PIJ,  Sunni offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, nonetheless received critical Iranian money, weapons, and logistical support for what Hamas called its “Big Project:” the October 7 assault. The PFLP, once aligned with the Soviet Union, also relied upon Iranian backing and placed its fighters under Hamas’s command in Gaza. The October 7 attack was the first, large-scale execution of Iran’s Axis of Resistance doctrine. Iran not only equipped Hamas, PIJ, the PFLP, and Hezbollah but also played a direct role in planning, funding, and arranging training for the assault.

In the aftermath, Hamas and PIJ continued rocket fire, Hezbollah opened a northern front against Israel, and the Houthis launched missiles and attacked international shipping. Israel responded with bombing campaigns and, beginning October 13, 2023, ground operations in Gaza aimed at dismantling Hamas’s military capacity and rescuing hostages. During this period, Israeli and American citizens were killed or grievously injured in attacks linked directly to Hamas, PIJ, the PFLP, and Hezbollah the very groups financed, armed, and directed by Iran.