US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined to halt $655.5 million in damages that Palestinian authorities were ordered to pay plaintiffs in a US civil lawsuit concerning terror attacks that killed and injured Americans in Israel from 2002 to 2004, during the Second Initifada.

Sotomayor denied a request by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization to pause the judgment while they appeal a lower court’s decision to revive the case years after it had been dismissed.

The lawsuit was filed by victims of attacks in Jerusalem that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more.

The attacks took place during the Second Intifada, in which roughly 1,000 Israelis and others were killed in a string of suicide bombings and other terror attacks.

The Supreme Court last year upheld a federal law passed in 2019 that allowed claims like those brought by the plaintiffs in the case. US citizens have also filed other suits seeking damages for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Sotomayor did not explain her decision and did not refer the case to the entire court. Sotomayor handles emergency matters for cases arising from New York and certain other states.

The Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the judgment in March following the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision in June 2025 to uphold the 2019 law, called the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.

The Palestinian organizations said that enforcing the........

© The Times of Israel