US victims of Hamas terror attacks go after bank

Some 140 American victims of two dozen terror attacks in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank during a Palestinian uprising from 2001 to 2004 want the Jordan-based Arab Bank to pay a price as well.

A civil trial that’s set to begin Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn will see the victims try to convince a jury that the bank helped Hamas finance a “death and dismemberment benefit plan” for martyrs — a claim that survived numerous legal challenges before being allowed to go forward amid a backdrop of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs call it the first terrorism financing case to go to trial in the United States and say it could result in the bank paying unspecified damages. Arab Bank, which has hundreds of branches around the world, including in New York and in the Palestinian territories, has denied it knew it was doing business with terrorists when it processed electronic transfers.

–AP