American victims of 13 terror attacks that took place in Israel have filed suit against a French bank that was used to funnel money to Hamas.

The suit alleges that over the course of three years during a period of mounting suicide bombings in Israel, the French bank, Credit Lyonnais, failed to quickly cut ties with a fundraising organization of Hamas.

The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where a judge is scheduled to hear arguments next week in a similar case against a British bank filed by the same lawyer.

For the victims, the suit represents an effort to prevent terror organizations from using banking services with the same ease as other clients.

"The only thing in my mind is I couldn't not do it," Sarri Singer, 32, said by telephone of her decision to join the case against Credit Lyonnais.

Ms. Singer, of Lakewood, N.J., was next to a Hamas suicide bomber disguised as an Orthodox Jew who murdered 16 passengers on a bus in Jerusalem in June 2003.

"If you don't sue them, you're allowing these people to get away with what they're doing. The only way to stop it is to not allow these banks to maintain these accounts for charities that are actually global fundraisers for designated terrorist groups."...