Eight families of Israeli-Druze children from Majdal Shams killed in Hezbollah’s July 2024 rocket attack filed a lawsuit Sunday in the Jerusalem District Court against the Lebanon-based terror group, seeking NIS 80 million in compensation.
An additional lawsuit, seeking compensation of NIS 165 million, was also filed against Hezbollah on behalf of 30 locals who were wounded in the attack.
Hezbollah, which began firing at Israel on October 8, 2023, launched an Iranian-made Falaq-1 missile loaded with 53kg of explosives at the soccer field, killing 12 children who were playing football and wounding dozens of locals.
"About a year and a half ago, my life was destroyed beyond recognition," Laith Abu Saleh, one of the fathers of the murdered youths, said. "The lawsuit now being filed against Hezbollah will not bring our children back, but it seeks to do a small measure of justice and to establish clear responsibility for the deliberate harm to innocent civilians."
"Even though no lawsuit has the power to heal our pain or return our loved ones, it is meant to set a clear boundary - firing rockets at a civilian population is a shocking crime, and those responsible must be held accountable," he added.
Israeli law center Shurat HaDin President Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told The Jerusalem Post that in 2006, the precedent was set that Hezbollah could be sued after terror victims with American citizenship wounded during the second Lebanese war filed a lawsuit in the US. The lawsuit was paid out from Hezbollah assets that had been frozen by the US.
If the Jerusalem-based lawsuit is successful, Darshan-Leitner said they will enforce the judgment in the United States and ensure the victims are paid from the frozen assets.
“Justice must be pursued now, while Hezbollah is weakened and internationally exposed,” she said. “In an act of unparalleled malice, they took the lives of 12 innocent teenagers with Iranian backing. This case will continue in the courts until justice is achieved for the victims of terrorism.”
The terror group will have 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, and is able to send international lawyers to defend the group in an Israeli court, she explained.
Lebanon and Hezbollah denied in July 2024 that the terror group was behind the deadly attack, despite Hezbollah admitting to targeting “military positions” on the same day of the attack.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said at the time he “expected the Majdal Shams strike was carried out by other organizations or was an Israeli mistake or a mistake by Hezbollah” and insisted on an international investigation into the attack.
Ibrahim Ibrahim, Guevara's father, told The Post that he had decided his family would not participate in the lawsuit.
'Now we are three'
“We were a family of four; we lost our son Guevara, and now we are three. We ask only for peace and love among people, and that peace prevail throughout the world. We will not file complaints, and we do not seek revenge against Hezbollah or anyone else. We only ask to live in peace and love, and for peace to spread across the entire world,” he explained.
Ibrahim spent hours searching for his 11-year-old son after the attack, with the help of a thousand members of his community. After initially receiving false hope that he was in the ICU, it was confirmed by the IDF that his son’s DNA matched that found at the scene and was likely so close to the impact that little remained of him.
Ibrahim shared that Guevara should be remembered as “a well-mannered, polite boy who excelled in school.”
“He was loved among his friends and enjoyed helping others. His dream was to become a famous football player,” he shared. “He loved Real Madrid and the Real Madrid team; it was his passion and his dream to one day become a player for Real Madrid. His favorite player was Ronaldo.”
Ibrahim shared that the field has now been turned into a memorial garden, with a place for children to continue playing football “so that their friends can fulfill these children's dreams.”
James Genn contributed to this report.