LOS ANGELES—More than 100 victims of terrorism in Israel filed a lawsuit Thursday against one of China's largest banks demanding the institution stop transferring money to terrorist groups.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court claims Bank of China Ltd. transferred millions of dollars to Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad, ignoring demands by Israeli counterterrorism officials to halt the practice.

The bank "knowingly assisted Hamas and the Islamic Jihad to carry out terrorist attacks" and did so through the bank's U.S. branches even though such transfers are against American law, said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The suit alleges the money helped fund attacks between 2004 and 2007.

The plaintiffs, who include the family of a 4 year-old boy killed during a 2004 attack, are being represented by attorneys in Los Angeles, New York and Israel.

Officials from the Bank of China in Los Angeles and New York did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The lawsuit claims that beginning in July 2003, the Bank of China executed dozens of wire transfers for the terrorist groups totaling several million dollars. Many of the transfers were initiated in the Middle East, sent to branches in the U.S. then to an account at a bank branch in Guanzhou, China, the suit said.

The money was then wired to terrorist leadership in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip "for the purpose of planning,

Copyright Associated Press 2008