Leading Palestinian-American businessman aided Hamas with development projects, Oct. 7 victims’ lawsuit claims

A US lawsuit filed by victims of the October 7 attacks claims a prominent Palestinian-American businessman, Bashar Masri, aided Hamas through business projects in the Gaza Strip.

The lawsuit argues that Hamas deceived Israel ahead of the October 7 invasion by feigning an interest in developing Gaza, and that Masri and his companies were “an integral part of that grand deception.”

“They owned and operated flagship properties in Gaza that they knowingly and deliberately integrated into Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure and that were crucial elements in Hamas’s attack plan on October 7,” the lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs are around 200 American victims of the October 7 attack and their family members, including the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the US.

The lawsuit does not say that Masri knew about the attack, but that he knew Hamas used his properties for military purposes.

The case claims that Masri held longtime animosity toward Israel, but sought to remake himself as a businessperson after moving to the US and investing in development projects in Palestinian areas. He continued “conspiring with Hamas” to build infrastructure used in the October 7 attack and provided cover for Hamas’s “true violent aims,” the lawsuit says.

Some of Masri’s development projects appeared to be legitimate, but were also used to build and hide Hamas tunnels, store rockets, host Hamas leaders, train Hamas operatives, and produce electricity for Hamas tunnels, the case says.

The lawsuit focuses on the Gaza Industrial Estate, a 480,000 square meter industrial park across the border from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, one of the hardest-hit communities in the October 7 attack. The park was financed by USAID, the UN, the EU, and others. Masri coordinated the park’s development with Hamas, and the terror group built tunnels under the park, used the facility to probe the border fence, and siphoned its electricity for tunnels, the lawsuit alleges.

Masri also oversaw two luxury hotels in Gaza that Hamas, including its late terror chief Yahya Sinwar, used to host Hamas events. Hamas tunnels ran underneath the hotels, and were connected to them. The terror group used the hotels as a base of operations and to ambush IDF troops, the lawsuit says.

Masri used his image to solicit investments from US institutions, the World Bank, the United Nations, and the European Union.

Masri’s office denied the allegations in a statement.

“Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy,” the statement said.

“Bashar Masri has been involved in development and humanitarian work for the past decades. His continued efforts to promote regional peace and stability have been widely recognized by the United States and all concerned parties in the region. He unequivocally opposes violence of any kind,” the statement said, adding that “He will seek the dismissal of these false allegations in court.”

Masri is on the dean’s council at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, served on the advisory council for the US Development Finance Corporation from 2020-2023, and has been linked to the Trump administration. He heads Rawabi, a planned city in the West Bank and a major development project.

The lawsuit seeks damages under the Anti-Terrorism Act and a trial by jury. It was filed in the federal district court of Washington, DC, where Masri has a residence. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, a prominent law firm, is representing the plaintiffs.