(IsraelNN.com) The state-owned Bank of China has denied it aided Hamas and said it will fight a mega-lawsuit filed by terror victims and their families. The plaintiffs charged that the bank transferred millions of dollars to Hamas via its American branch despite several Israeli warnings to stop the practice.
 
"The accusation is absolutely groundless," Bank of China Ltd. said in a statement. "Bank of China is prepared to fight the suit."

More than 100 terror victims and their relatives charged in a Los Angeles court last week that the Bank of China "knowingly assisted Hamas and the Islamic Jihad" between 2004 and 2007 and that the money was used to finance attacks.

The alleged bank transfers were initiated in the Middle East, sent to American branches and then transferred to terrorist organizations' accounts in China. From there, the money was wired to Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in Israel, including Judea, Samaria and Gaza, according to the lawsuit.

Israeli counterterrorist personnel met with Chinese officials in 2005 to demand it cease from transferring more money, but the bank, with the approval of the Chinese government, continued to wire the money, said attorneys for the terror victims.

Among the victims and families whose attorneys filed the criminal and civil suits are the parents of four-year-old Afik Zahavi, who was killed four years ago in a Kassam rocket attack on Sderot as he returned home from a pre-school facility.

Other plaintiffs include the families of two men who were murdered in a suicide bombing at an Eilat bakery last year. 
 
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner charged that the Bank of China "even had the chutzpah to make these funds transfers through its U.S. branches right under the nose of the Justice Department, despite the fact that Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad are designated terrorist organizations and that such wire transfers are a crime under American law. We expect the Bank of China to now pay very heavily for its support for terrorism."