TEL AVIV – Israel is set to launch a series of lawsuits against the families of terrorists, with the first “precedent-setting” lawsuit filed last month against the family of a terrorist who killed four soldiers in January, prosecutors from the Jerusalem District Court said.
The widow and four children of Fadi al-Qunbar were sued for NIS 8 million ($2.3 million) in an effort to recoup some of the costs incurred by the state following the terror attack.
Qunbar drove his truck into a group of pedestrians at a popular tourist site near Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv Promenade, killing four and wounding 16. He was shot and killed by soldiers at the scene.
The sum demanded of Qunbar’s family includes burial costs for the soldiers, compensation paid out to the victims’ families, monies to cover “the loss of earnings for the lost years, loss of pension and pension rights, shortening life expectancy” and “compensation for [the] pain and suffering that reflects the cruelty of the acts and the great suffering of all the murder victims.”
According to the Haaretz newspaper, an additional complaint is also set to be filed against another terrorist’s family in the coming days.
The State Prosecutor’s Office said such lawsuits will act as a deterrence for future attacks.
“This suit, based on a terror incident in which soldiers were killed, was intended to reimburse to the state’s coffers the expenses connected with events like these and to convey a clear and unequivocal message that the state will [also] settle accounts from a civil perspective with perpetrators of evil acts,” Haaretz quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying.