Lawsuit names Qatar’s royal family in killings of 10 Americans in Israel

A general view of the Corniche Towers is seen in Doha, Qatar February 5, 2019. REUTERS/File Photo
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Updated 11 June 2020
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Lawsuit names Qatar’s royal family in killings of 10 Americans in Israel

  • Lawsuit says Qatar sought to evade US sanctions by channeling the money through three entities
  • Representing 51 plaintiffs and 10 victims, the lawsuit alleges Qatar finances Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad

CHICAGO: A “wrongful death” lawsuit was filed Wednesday (June 10) against Qatar’s Royal family by relatives of 10 Americans who were either killed or seriously injured during terrorist attacks in Israel and the Israeli Occupied West Bank.

Representing 51 plaintiffs and 10 victims, the lawsuit alleges Qatar finances Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad which are both designated as “terrorist organizations” by the US government.

According to the lawsuit, Qatar sought to evade US sanctions by channeling the money through three entities, the Qatar Charity, which is a member of the US Sanctioned “Union of Good” which is a US “Specifically Designated Terrorist Organization” because of its association with Hamas, and two Middle East banks Qatar’s Royal family controls, Masraf Al Rayan and Qatar National. The chairman of Qatar Charity’s board is Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani, a member of the Qatari Royal Family.

“Like any enterprise, terrorist organizations need money to operate. But unlike legitimate organizations, terrorist organizations like Hamas rely on sympathetic nation states and financial institutions who employ creative fundraising strategies to disguise their operations and evade anti-terrorism laws. Often terrorist financing is disguised as charitable contributions,” the lawsuit asserts.

“It has long been the official policy of the government of Qatar to provide financial support to the Hamas terrorist organization. It is thus no surprise that Masraf Al Rayan bank, Qatar Charity, and Qatar National Bank, which are dominated by the Qatari government and royal family, have joined in that effort.”

Qatar, which hosts a major American and European Air Force Base near Doha, is one of the largest financial supporters of Hamas which is based in the Gaza Strip giving the organization more than $50 million over the years, the lawsuit states.

“In 2008, Palestinian officials claimed that Qatar provided Hamas with millions of dollars a month that was nominally intended for the people of Gaza,” the lawsuit states.

In March 2014, the US Department of the Treasury Under Secretary David Cohen singled out Qatar as an especially “permissive jurisdiction” for terrorist financing noting Qatar “has for many years openly financed Hamas, a group that continues to undermine regional stability.”

Qatari oversight is so lax, Cohen noted, that “several major Qatar-based fundraisers act as local representatives for larger terrorist fundraising networks that are based in Kuwait.”

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of 51 individuals and parents, siblings and relatives of 10 individuals who were either killed or seriously injured as a result of violence allegedly by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and funded through Qatar.

The victims named in the lawsuit were all US Citizens living in Israel with dual Israeli citizenship, and include:

• Taylor Force who was allegedly murdered by a Hamas operative on March 8, 2016. a native of Lubbock, Texas who graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute (a secondary school) and then West Point in 2009 and served tours of duty in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

• The 13-year-old daughter of Rina Ariel, identified only as “H.Y.A.,” was murdered in her sleep allegedly by a Hamas terrorist on June 30, 2016.

• The minor son of Abraham Ron Fraenkel and Rachel Devora Sprecher Fraenkel, identified only as “Y.N.F., was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists.

• Yehudah Glick was severely wounded in a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror attack on Oct. 29, 2014 and. Glick is currently a member of the Israeli Knesset and has renounced his US citizenship.

• Richard Lakin was killed in a Hamas attack on Oct. 13, 2015.

• The minor daughter of Shmuel Elimelech Braun and Chana Braun, identified only as “C.Z.B.,” was killed on Oct. 22, 2014 in an alleged Hamas terrorist attack.

• Menachem Mendel Rivkin was seriously injured when he was allegedly stabbed by a Hamas terrorist on Jan. 27, 2016.

• Plaintiffs Yoav Golan and Rotem Shoshana Golan were injured on Dec. 14, 2016 when an alleged Hamas terrorist deliberately drove a car into a crowd of people waiting at a bus station.

• Plaintiff Raphael (“Rafi”) Lisker was stabbed in the neck on Dec. 23, 2106 allegedly by a Hamas terrorist while walking home from Sabbath services with his wife Shoshana.

• Noam Michael Shamba was injured on Dec. 14, 2015 in a terrorist attack allegedly perpetrated by a Hamas operative.

On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed the Taylor Force Act blocking American financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) asserting that the PA was paying stipends to individuals who commit acts of terrorism. Palestinians argue the monies are actually “welfare payments” made to support the surviving families of the suspects whose homes were destroyed by Israel’s government’s policy of “collective punishment.”

The lawsuit alleges funds provided by Hamas through Masraf Al Rayan bank are tied to the attacks. It notes that Masraf Al Rayan bank is under investigation in the United Kingdom under provision of “financial services to Qatar Charity in knowing support of that organization’s financial support of Hamas and PIJ.”

Qatar Charity solicited donations in Qatar and around the world and then transferred those funds to its account at Masraf Al Rayan bank in Doha, Qatar, the lawsuit asserts.

The monies deposited at Masraf Al Rayan bank were then transferred in US dollars through a correspondent bank in New York and then transferred to Qatar Charity’s accounts at either the Bank of Palestine, or to the Islamic Bank in Ramallah.

Finally, Qatar Charity’s local branches would distribute the funds in U.S. dollars from those local accounts to Hamas, PIJ, and their affiliates to finance acts of terrorism in Israel, the lawsuit claims.

Qatar's tenuous ties to America 

Despite the allegations of supporting terrorism, the United States, Great Britain, and other Gulf War coalition nations maintain a coalition military base southwest of Doha, Qatar called Al Udeid Air Base (Abu Nakhlah Airport).

To counter the criticism of Qata’s support of terrorist organizations, the Qatari Royal Family through the Qatar Foundation has invested more than $1.4 billion in colleges and universities, mostly involved in journalism, between 2012 to 2018.

This is not the first lawsuit Qatar faces. Last year in July, Tampa Attorney Rebecca Castaneda filed a Federal lawsuit against Sheikh Khaled Al-Thani, the brother of Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, alleging Sheikh Khaled threatened two American contractors for not killing the Sheikh’s enemies.

Castaneda said the original lawsuit is being expanded to include three more Americans plaintiffs who allege “even worse violence” including witnesses who claim Sheikh Khaled murdered an Indian employee who insulted his wife, and made seven solicitations for murder including wanting to kill a leader in the American race car sports industry.

“Sheikh Khaled is a very violent person,” Castaneda said.


Turkish court postpones hearing over hotel fire

Updated 23 min 45 sec ago
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Turkish court postpones hearing over hotel fire

  • The court is considering allegations that poor safety measures at the hotel contributed to the disaster
  • The different organizations under scrutiny denied responsibility

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Thursday adjourned the trial of 32 people over a fire January at a luxury ski resort hotel that killed 78 people, after 10 days of harrowing testimony.

Since the trial opened on July 7, survivors, many of them in tears, have told the court how they escaped the deadly blaze, whose victims included 36 children.

The fire swept through the Grand Kartal Hotel in the northern mountain resort of Kartalkaya on January 21.

As well as the 78 people killed in the fire, another 130 people were injured.

The court is considering allegations that poor safety measures at the hotel contributed to the disaster.

Among the defendants facing manslaughter charges are the hotel’s owner, managers, the deputy mayor of Bolu city and two fire department officials.

“Everyone including the employees and bosses lied in their initial statements,” said Yusuf Yaman, the private DHA news agency reported. Yaman lost his daughter and grand-daughter in the fire.

“We lost 78 lives. They’re all my children. If they (the suspects) had shown courage, if they had confessed everything, they would have had a clearer conscience,” he added.

After the fire, the different organizations under scrutiny denied responsibility, the tourism ministry and the local municipality run by the main opposition CHP party blaming each other.

At the end of the 10-day hearing, the hotel’s director and owner Emir Aras expressed regret. He told the judge he did not want to be released from detention, DHA reported.

The court postponed the hearing to September 22.


Jordan treats dozens of injured Palestinians from Gaza, sends more aid to territory

Updated 17 July 2025
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Jordan treats dozens of injured Palestinians from Gaza, sends more aid to territory

  • Jordanian Medical Corridor initiative aims to assist Palestinians in Gaza and is carried out in cooperation with the Jordanian armed forces, Ministry of Health, and the World Health Organization
  • Since the initiative began in March, 112 injured and sick children, accompanied by 241 carers, have entered Jordan to receive treatment in private hospitals

LONDON: Jordanian associations dispatched 50 aid trucks to the Gaza Strip on Thursday and transferred dozens of Palestinian children to receive medical treatment in Jordan this week.

Dr. Fawzi Al-Hammouri, chairman of the Private Hospitals Association, confirmed that 35 sick and injured children from Gaza, accompanied by 72 carers, were admitted to several private hospitals in Jordan.

The initiative, part of the Jordanian Medical Corridor, aims to assist Palestinians in Gaza and is carried out in cooperation with the Jordanian armed forces, the Ministry of Health, and the World Health Organization.

Since the initiative began in March, 112 injured and sick children, accompanied by 241 guardians, have entered Jordan to receive treatment in private hospitals, according to Dr. Al-Hammouri.

On Thursday, the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization sent another humanitarian convoy of 50 trucks loaded with essential food supplies to the northern part of the Gaza coastal enclave. Northern Gaza is experiencing severe shortages of food and essential supplies due to disruptions in aid delivery and Israeli attacks.

Since late 2023, Jordan has delivered more than 7,815 aid trucks and 53 cargo planes through the Egyptian port of Arish, along with 102 helicopter sorties to deliver aid, to support Palestinians in Gaza.

Jordan was among the first countries to conduct airlift missions in the early days of the war, delivering relief to Gaza. More than 58,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, which have been described as genocide by human rights groups and several heads of state.


Qatar to strengthen tourism partnership with Jordan, delegation visits Amman Citadel

Updated 17 July 2025
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Qatar to strengthen tourism partnership with Jordan, delegation visits Amman Citadel

  • Talks underway for launch of joint promotional campaigns and sharing of expertise in sustainable tourism marketing
  • Central Bank of Jordan reports 11.9% increase in tourism revenues during first half of 2025 to $3.67bn, despite drop in visitors to Petra in June due to regional conflicts

LONDON: Saad Al-Kharji, the chairperson of Qatar Tourism, visited the historical site of Amman Citadel, accompanied by the Jordanian minister of tourism and antiquities, Lina Annab, as officials from the two countries met to discuss enhanced cooperation in the tourism sector.

The Qatari delegation toured several key landmarks on Wednesday and learned about Jordan’s rich cultural history as part of a visit described as an essential step as officials work to develop joint promotional campaigns and share expertise in the marketing of sustainable tourism, the Jordan News Agency reported.

The Jordanian ministry said the diverse tourism options in Jordan and Qatar provide the foundations for fostering a partnership that can enrich visitor experiences and attract foreign travelers.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Jordan reported an 11.9 percent increase in tourism revenues to $3.67 billion during the first half of 2025 compared with the same period last year.

This was despite a previously reported decline of more than 75 percent in the number of foreign visitors to Petra, the country’s main tourist attraction, in June compared with the same month in recent years due to the ongoing war in Gaza and the conflict between Iran and Israel.


British surgeon in Gaza describes wounded Palestinians dying due to malnutrition 

Updated 17 July 2025
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British surgeon in Gaza describes wounded Palestinians dying due to malnutrition 

  • Professor Nick Maynard moved to tears by malnourished state of Palestinian babies at Nasser Hospital
  • Even Palestinian hospital colleagues look shadow of former selves due to Israel’s aid blockade

LONDON: Palestinians being treated in one of Gaza’s few remaining hospitals are dying from their wounds because they are so malnourished, a British doctor working in the territory said.

Professor Nick Maynard, a consultant gastrointestinal surgeon, who is on his third stint volunteering in the territory since the war started, said he is seeing unprecedented levels of severe malnutrition.

“The malnutrition I’m seeing here is indescribably bad. It’s much, much worse now than a year ago,” Maynard, who is based at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, said.

UNICEF chief Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that acute malnutrition among children in Gaza had almost tripled after Israel imposed an 11-week blockade on food aid to the territory in March.

 

 

Maynard said malnutrition levels were directly contributing to preventable deaths among patients receiving surgery. He said those injured in Israel’s military attacks were dying because being malnourished prevents proper healing.

“The repairs that we carry out fall to pieces; patients get terrible infections and they die,” Maynard, who is volunteering with Medical Aid for Palestinians, said. “I have had so many patients die because they can’t get enough food to recover, it’s distressing to see that and know that it is preventable and treatable.”

Maynard said babies in Nasser’s neonatal unit have been particularly affected, with four recent infant deaths blamed on malnutrition.

The surgeon said he had been reduced to tears by the state of the children he has seen. 

“I saw a seven-month-old who looked like a newborn,” Maynard said. “The expression ‘skin and bones’ doesn’t do it justice. We have almost no liquid or intravenous feeds — children are being given essentially 10 percent sugar water, which is not proper nutritional support.”

Maynard said he had even seen the effects of malnutrition in his Palestinian colleagues, who were barely recognizable from when he had worked with them a year ago. He said many had lost 20-30kg due to the food shortages.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza lead to widespread warnings that the territory could descend into a state of famine.

Surgeon Nick Maynard is on his third visit to Gaza since the war started. He said the levels of severe malnutrition are unprecedented. (MAP)

In her briefing to the security council, UNICEF’s Russell said that of the more than 113,000 children screened for malnutrition in June, almost 6,000 were found to be acutely malnourished — an 180 percent increase in acute malnutrition cases compared to February.

“Children in Gaza are enduring catastrophic living conditions, including severe food insecurity and malnutrition,” she said. 

Maynard, who is usually based at Oxford University Hospital, has been traveling to volunteer in Gaza with MAP for more than 10 years.

While on his current posting, he has witnessed the daily arrival of Palestinians who have been shot while trying to access food aid through distribution hubs set up by the new Israeli- and US-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“We have hundreds of trauma casualties coming in every day, it’s relentless,” he said. “This is not only from Israeli military airstrikes and attacks, but we are also treating multiple gunshot wounds every day.

“These are mainly from the militarized distribution points, where starving civilians are going to try and get food but then report getting targeted by Israeli soldiers or quadcopters.”

The surgeon said he had mostly been operating on boys aged 12 or 13 who had been sent to the aid hubs to get food for their families.

“A 12-year-old boy I was operating on died from his injuries on the operating table — he had been shot through the chest.”

Maynard called on the international community to force Israel to allow the full flow of food and aid into Gaza, and to end the “collective punishment” of the territory’s population.

“The enforced malnutrition and attacks on civilians we are witnessing will kill many more thousands of people if not stopped,” he said.


Palestinian man dies in Israeli jail a week after his arrest

Updated 17 July 2025
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Palestinian man dies in Israeli jail a week after his arrest

  • Samir Mohammad Yousef Al-Rifai, 53, is the 74th Palestinian prisoner to die in Israeli custody since October 2023
  • Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups say his death constitutes a new crime of Israeli brutality against prisoners and ongoing genocide

LONDON: A 53-year-old Palestinian prisoner died in an Israeli jail after nearly a week following his arrest in Rummana, near Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Detainees’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society announced on Thursday the death of Samir Mohammad Yousef Al-Rifai. He is the 74th Palestinian prisoner to die in Israeli custody since October 2023 and the 311th since Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian Territories began in 1967.

Al-Rifai, a father of five, was arrested by Israeli occupation forces at his home in Rummana on July 10. According to the Wafa news agency, he had pre-existing heart problems and required intensive medical follow-up. He was scheduled to have his first hearing in the Salem Military Court on Thursday.

The commission and the PPS reported that Palestinian prisoners face systematic crimes, including torture, starvation, medical abuses, sexual assaults, and harsh conditions in Israeli prisons, which lead to the outbreak of diseases like scabies.

The death of Al-Rifai “constitutes a new crime added to the record of Israeli brutality, which commits all forms of crimes aimed at killing prisoners. This is another aspect of the ongoing genocide, and an extension of it,” they added.

More than 10,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, the highest prisoner count since the Second Intifada in 2000, Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups reported last week.

As of early July, some 10,800 prisoners are said to be held in Israeli detention centers and prisons, including 50 women — two of whom are from the Gaza Strip — and over 450 children.

Since the 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, over 800,000 Palestinians have spent time in Israeli jails, according to a UN report in 2023.