Hezbollah displays an Iranian-made Fajr 5 missile at a military parade in South Lebanon. (AFP/File photo)
BEIRUT — A US court has ordered Hezbollah to pay damages to Americans who said they were wounded physically and emotionally and had their properties damaged by rockets the group fired during the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, the Associated Press reported.
The case, which stipulated millions of dollars in damages, was brought under the US Anti-Terrorism Act. The judge ordered Hezbollah — which the US government deems a terrorist organization — to pay damages to the tune of $111 million.
L'Orient Today reached out to a Hezbollah spokesperson for the party's response on the matter, but the party declined to comment.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, one of the lawyers representing the complainants, said in a statement that the case was an important legal victory against Hezbollah.
However, such lawsuits brought against militant groups are often hard to enforce.
“Only by exacting a heavy price from those who engage in the business of terrorism can we prevent the suffering and loss of additional victims to their violence,” Darshan-Leitner said in a statement.
In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah had a 34-day war. Israeli forces launched air, sea and land raids into Lebanon while Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets at cities and towns across the border. According to Human Rights Watch, the war resulted in 1,109 deaths in Lebanon, the vast majority of whom were civilians. Another 4,399 people in Lebanon were injured. Hezbollah's attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 43 Israeli civilians and 12 Israeli soldiers, as well as hundreds of injured Israeli civilians.
In Friday’s court ruling, Judge Steven L. Tiscione of the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said the complainants had successfully established that Hezbollah’s actions were a violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act and held the group liable.