A group of Israeli and American citizens filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on Monday seeking $1 billion in damages from Facebook [corporate website] for allegedly facilitating in Palestinian military attacks. The plaintiffs are relatives of victims who died in attack in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the West Bank between 2014 and 2016. They are accusing [Reuters report] Facebook of assisting in the Hamas [BBC profile] militants’ operations. The complaint contends that Facebook “knowingly provided material support and resources to Hamas … facilitating this terrorist group’s ability to communicate, recruit members, plan and carry out attacks, and strike fear in its enemies.” This lawsuit follows comments made by Israel’s security minister [official website] discussing [Reuters report] Facebook’s reluctance to help track potential Palestinian militants.

Facebook has faced numerous legal challenges across the globe. In January Germany’s Federal Court of Justice ruled [press release, in German] that Facebook’s friend finder feature is unlawful [JURIST report]. In October the European Court of Justice ruled [JURIST report] that EU user data transferred to the US by various technology companies, including Facebook, is not sufficiently protected. In December 2014 Facebook failed to dismiss a lawsuit [JURIST report] that claimed it scanned users’ private messages for the names of websites for targeted advertising purposes. In May 2014 an Iranian judge ordered [JURIST report] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear in court regarding allegation that certain Facebook apps violated user privacy.