The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court - Southern District of New York.

While Palestinians have previously filed suit in the United States against other Israeli security officials, Dichter, unlike the defendants in those cases, is currently in the U.S. As a result, the plaintiffs have been able to serve him with the papers, thereby enabling the court to hear the case.

According to the suit, Dichter shares responsibility for the deaths both because of his role in the decision to drop a one-ton bomb on the building where Shehadeh was staying and because he supplied the intelligence on which that decision was based.

The plaintiffs seek to hold Dichter responsible under customary international law and the Torture Victim Protection Act. They say the court would have jurisdiction for human rights violations and war crimes under the U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act, a law that has been used by Holocaust survivors and relatives of people killed or tortured under despotic regimes from South America to the Philippines.

The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, says the bombing occurred as part of a series of targeted attacks on suspected terrorists that has killed 327 people and at least 174 non-targeted bystanders, including at least 47 children, since September 2000.

The lawsuit says Dichter had "developed, implemented and escalated the practice of targeted killings."

A spokeswoman for the Center for Constitutional Rights said Dichter was served with the lawsuit during a benefit Wednesday in New York City.

The Israel Defense Forces said at the time that it decided to drop the bomb based on intelligence indicating that Shehadeh was alone in the building.

While the suit does not ask for a specific sum in damages - that would be decided by the jury - the total is expected to reach millions of dollars. The plaintiffs are seeking both compensation and punitive damages, arguing that the bombing constituted a war crime that should not go unpunished.

Dichter has not yet responded to the suit.