More than four decades after one of the deadliest antisemitic attacks in postwar France, a terrorism court has ordered six suspected Palestinian terrorists to stand trial for the brutal 1982 massacre at the Jo Goldenberg Jewish restaurant in Paris.

The lunchtime attack on August 9, 1982, shocked the nation when assailants lobbed grenades into the packed eatery and then sprayed machine-gun fire, killing six and wounding 22 more. Two of those murdered were American citizens. It was the bloodiest antisemitic assault in France since the Holocaust.

The suspects — believed to be operatives of the notorious Abu Nidal terrorist group — will face justice more than 43 years later. French anti-terrorism judges have formally ordered the men to trial, which could begin as early as next year.

Four of the six suspects remain at large and are expected to be tried in absentia. Among them is the alleged mastermind, Mohamed Souhair al-Abassi (aka Amjad Atta), who is currently living freely in Jordan, which has refused extradition. The others believed to be hiding in Jordan or Palestinian territories include Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra (aka Hicham Harb), Nabil Hassan Mahmoud Othmane (aka Ibrahim Hamza), and Nizar Tawfiq Moussa Hamada (aka Hani).

Only two of the suspects are in French custody. One, Walid Abdulrahman Abu Zayed, was extradited from Norway in 2020. The other, Hazza Taha, was arrested more recently in Paris.

“This is not a case buried in the past — this trial is deeply personal and painfully present for the families,” said attorney David Père, who represents dozens of relatives and one survivor of the attack. “They intend to follow every moment in court.”

The survivor, though not physically wounded, remains psychologically haunted by the carnage. “He wants answers. He wants to look the men responsible in the eye,” Père told the Associated Press.

The six victims murdered that day were: Mohamed Bennemou, André Hezkia Niego, Georges Demeter, Denise Guerche Rossignol, and two Americans — Ann Van Zanten and Grace Cutler.

Jo Goldenberg, the owner of the restaurant, recalled in a 2002 interview how the attack unfolded in a matter of seconds. “They fired on everyone who was eating lunch — everyone,” he said. The Marais district restaurant, a symbol of the Jewish presence in Paris, never fully recovered and has since shuttered.

French investigators issued international arrest warrants in 2015 — more than three decades after the massacre — reigniting long-stalled efforts to bring the attackers to justice.

The Abu Nidal Organization, an extremist Palestinian splinter group infamous for its global terror campaign during the 1970s and 1980s, is believed responsible for at least 275 deaths worldwide. In 1985, the group orchestrated coordinated attacks on El Al ticket counters at Rome and Vienna airports, leaving 18 dead. Its leader, Sabri al-Banna — known as Abu Nidal — was found dead in Baghdad in 2002 under mysterious circumstances. Iraqi authorities claimed he died by suicide.

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