The United States Supreme Court is rejecting an appeal from American victims of terrorist attacks in Israel more than a decade ago.

The justices are not commenting Monday in ending a lawsuit against the PLO and Palestinian Authority in connection with attacks in Israel in 2002 and 2004 that killed 33 people. A lower court tossed out a $654 million verdict against the Palestinians.

Eleven American families sued the PLO, Yasser Arafat and others over seven terror incidents from 2001 to 2004, claiming that the attacks were perpetrated by security officers and other agents of the Palestinian Authority. The families invoked the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which gives any American injured by an act of terrorism the right to sue for damages.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York threw the case out, ruling that victims must show that they were specifically targeted or that the attackers intended to harm U.S. interests. The court also said the Palestinian entities did not have a sufficient connection to the U.S. that would make them subject to federal law.

The lead plaintiff in the case, Mark Sokolow, was injured along with his wife and two daughters in a 2002 suicide bombing in Jerusalem. After a six-week jury trial in 2015, the families were awarded $655.5 million, but the appeals court set that verdict aside.

The Trump administration sided with the Palestinians in calling on the high court to leave the lower court ruling in place. The federal appeals court in New York said U.S. courts can’t consider lawsuits against foreign-based groups over random attacks that were not aimed at the United States.

The victims sued under the Anti-Terrorism Act, passed to open U.S. courts to American victims of international terrorism.

(AP)