All of the plaintiffs are American victims of Hamas attacks or relatives of people who were killed.

A person who had been briefed on the case, but was not authorized to speak publicly about it because details of the settlement were confidential, said the settlement covered all of the claims brought by the plaintiffs under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, a total of about 500 plaintiffs.

Michael Elsner, a plaintiffs’ lawyer with Motley Rice, said through a spokeswoman that “the framework” of the settlement agreement “will be finalized over the next few months.”

Under the Anti-Terrorism Act, American victims of terrorist attacks abroad may sue for damages in federal court. (Some of the victims in this case lived in the Eastern District of New York, which covers Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in New York City, and Nassau and Suffolk Counties. That is why the case is being heard in Brooklyn.)

It is nearly impossible to get individual terrorists to appear in the United States for a civil case, and terrorist groups and members do not generally have much money to pay victims. Banks, however, do, and a number of cases against banks saying they helped to finance terrorism are pending. The Arab Bank case was the first to go to trial.

While the claims involving Hamas were tried first, there were other claims against Arab Bank involving other terrorist groups. Those have not been tried, but plaintiffs in those claims were part of the settlement, the person briefed on the case said.