Hezbollah killed his son. Now he’s suing Iran for him – and 46 other American victims

Eyal Balva visits the Military Cemetery in Herzliya at least once a week to sit by his son Omer’s grave and talk.

An antitank missile fired by Hezbollah killed Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Balva on October 20, 2023. The 22-year-old was stationed at Netu’a, a moshav in northern Israel, just two miles from the Lebanese border. He’d only just rejoined his unit when he died.

“We were very close. Not just father and son close, but like friends. I always promise him that I will keep fighting for him, that I will make him proud,” Balva said in a video interview with The Times of Israel from his condominium in Maryland, where the family splits time with their Israeli home. Behind him hangs a portrait of a joyful Omer.

Balva and his wife Sigalit are among the dozens suing Iran for its role in the death and injury of American citizens, both in and out of the Israeli military, during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel.

Some 1,200 men, women, and children were slaughtered in the onslaught and 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. In the subsequent multi-front conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in the north, 46 civilians and 458 IDF soldiers and reservists have been killed.

The lawsuit, filed on November 17 in the US District Court of the District of Columbia, details Iran’s funding of Hamas as well as its links to other terrorist organizations including Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Documents seized in Gaza, which have been viewed by The Times of Israel, provide the foundation for much of the suit.

But behind the bureaucratic language of the complaint and accompanying exhibits, are the 47 plaintiffs — the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, daughter and sons — each of whom signed on to this lawsuit knowing there would be many hurdles to overcome. For Balva, knowing that his close friend Jonathan Missner — a managing partner at Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner — is representing him makes the path forward a little easier.

“I don’t know if I could do this without Jon. He was like a father to Omer. I know it’s going to be hard, but I have to do it for the memory of Omer. There has to be accountability for terror,” Balva said.

From the time Missner’s son Ethan and Omer met at age 5, they were inseparable, Missner said.

“Omer Balva was a remarkable young man who only had love and humor in his heart. He lit up any environment he was in. My son believes he was an angel sent to Earth for a purpose. He selflessly volunteered for dangerous missions to defend Israel and the Jewish people, and he was murdered by Hezbollah. There is no legal matter that I have ever pursued that is more personal or important to me than this one,” Missner said.

Missner’s firm represents 20 plaintiffs in the current suit, including the Balvas and Yechiel Leiter, who was just named Israeli ambassador to the United States. Leiter’s son, Moshe Leiter, a 39-year-old father of six, was killed in the northern Gaza Strip while serving in the IDF reserves. The firm has pooled resources and clients with co-counsel from Jenner & Block LLP and Osen LLC.
‘Standard’ damages for terrorist attacks

However difficult it may be to win cases like this, Missner said, it is possible.

In 2021, a federal court in Washington held Iran and Syria liable for damages to the four children of Eitam and Naama Henkin, an Israeli-American couple who were shot and killed by Hamas terrorists at close range in front of their children in the West Bank in 2015.

Missner, who represented the Henkin children, said he believes the case can serve as a model for the October 7 lawsuit.

In ordinary terrorism cases, the direct victims — those killed or wounded — are harmed in one location, such as aboard an aircraft or inside a restaurant, and their closely related family members — spouses, parents, siblings, and children — are elsewhere, Missner said.

As such, the courts typically award damages for the close family members to compensate for the grief of having to live without a loved one or with someone who was wounded in the attack. Over time, US courts have developed “standard” damages awards of $8 million for spouses, $5 million for parents and children, and $2.5 million for siblings, Missner said.

In the Henkin case, the court awarded the children $10 million. The amount reflects both their grief of having to live without their parents and also the fact that they witnessed their parents’ murder, Missner said.

“A number of the October 7 victims — in our case and others — were present while their loved ones were murdered, wounded, or abducted. Their damages awards should account for not just the grief of living with the aftermath of the attack, but also for experiencing the horror of the attacks in real-time,” said Missner, who also serves on the board of the Israel Economic Forum.

Several weeks before he was killed, Omer Balva had been vacationing in the United States — first in California with his parents, siblings, and girlfriend, and then in Maryland, where he was born and lived until graduating from the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.

Omer was staying with the Missners in Maryland when he first learned Hamas terrorists had invaded Israel’s southern border by air, land and sea. After getting word that four of his soldiers were killed in the initial attack, Omer was determined to return to Israel.

“He kept calling me every two hours to get him on a flight,” Balva said. He and the rest of the family were already back in Israel.

The night before Omer left, he and Ethan packed a duffel bag full of gear for his unit — knee pads, elbow pads, earmuffs, anything they could think of. Omer flew back to Israel on October 15. On October 17, he and his father made the three-hour drive north. Balva tried to console himself with the knowledge that Omer would be in the north, since the majority of the fighting at the time was in and around Gaza. Omer was killed three days later, on October 20.

“When the doorbell rang, I said to my wife, ‘They are here to tell us about Omer.’ Even so, when I opened the door I said, ‘Tell me he is just injured.’ I knew they don’t come to your home to tell you someone is injured, but I wanted to make them say it,” Balva said.
Iran, the head of the hydra

American citizens have previously sued Iran for orchestrating terror attacks. And although Iran never defends itself in court, the plaintiffs often win default judgments.

The current lawsuit seeks compensatory damages under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and Anti-Terrorism Act, as well as punitive damages under the FSIA.

Payments come from seized or frozen assets that have been deposited in the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund. A special master administers the fund and determines entitlement and the payment amount.

Part of the strategy in this case will be to trace Iran’s financial fingerprints as well as its relationships with Hamas leadership, Missner said.

“Financial institutions that aid and abet this conduct are indistinguishable from the criminals that plan and participate in the attacks. In fact, we have applied this expertise in many matters such as our investigation of Swiss banks that provided financial support to the Nazis during World War II and even kept some of that Nazi money until as recently as a few years ago,” Missner said.

In this case, several exhibits accompanying the 103-page complaint detail $1 million, $2 million, and $3 million payments allegedly made from Iran to several Hamas leaders including Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Marwan Issa between 2014 and 2020. The complaint also covers “the big project,” which is how Hamas referred to the planned October 7 onslaught.

“Hamas was preparing for Sinwar’s ‘Big Project’ — a multi-pronged attack, coordinated with Hezbollah and the IRGC-QF, to annihilate the State of Israel,” according to the complaint. “To this end, Hamas held a conference in Gaza on September 30, 2021, titled ‘Ensuring the End of Days – Palestine After Liberation.’”

While it will be some time before a judge rules in this case, Balva said he feels confident Omer would insist he fight Iran in the courts.

“We have to do this, to do something better for the world and to remember him,” Balva said.

Source » msn