Palestinian billionaire accused of building ‘terror infrastructure’ for Hamas is sued by  Oct. 7 attack victims’ families

WASHINGTON — A US-based billionaire Palestinian developer was sued Monday by nearly 200 family members of Americans killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack — as well as Israel’s ambassador to Washington — for “aiding and abetting” the terror group as it planned its deadly incursion.

Bashar Masri, a naturalized American who lived as recently as 2022 in Washington, DC, per FEC filings, was accused of providing an “essential part” of Hamas’ “terror infrastructure” by facilitating the construction of tunnels and rocket launch sites as well as providing leaders like Yahya Sinwar the use of electricity at properties he owns in Gaza.

That infrastructure was located at an industrial park just yards from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the Karni crossing from Israel into Gaza — and at two lavish hotels on the Mediterranean, one of which became the site of a pitched battle between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas in the early months of the war.

“On and after October 7, Defendants provided electricity to Hamas and specifically to Hamas attack tunnels built under and into Defendants’ properties,” wrote attorney Lee Wolosky of Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP, one of the attorneys representing the victims’ families, in the suit.

“Defendants provided services that legitimized Hamas and gave its operations under and within Defendants’ properties greater protection from Israeli and U.S. action. All of this assistance was beneficial to Hamas in sustaining its iron-fisted rule in Gaza and in committing acts of international terrorism.”

As recently as last month, Masri was advising President Trump’s then-envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler about postwar plans for Gaza, according to the Jerusalem Post, accompanying Boehler to diplomatic meetings in Doha, Qatar, and Cairo, Egypt.

Masri has long been a celebrated figure in Washington diplomatic circles — decades after helping with “planning” the First Intifada of 1987 against Israel — and was the driving force behind the creation of the “futuristic” city of Rawabi in the West Bank, according to a glowing “60 Minutes” profile from December 2019.

In an interview with CBS News’ Bill Whitaker, Masri characterized his property developments as “a shortcut” toward peace with Israel.

“If we can build a city — a futuristic city, a secular city, a democratic city — then we can build a state,” he said of the Rawabi construction.

“I’m creating jobs for my fellow Palestinians. I am populating the land that if I’m not doin’ it, the settlers are. We’re not sugar-coating the occupation. We’re not normalizing with the occupation. We are defying the occupation.”

The entrepreneur’s holding company, Massar International, and other businesses like the Palestine Development & Investment Company received millions of dollars from the United Nations, European Union, World Bank and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to help develop the properties that contained the purported terror infrastructure.

The industrial park, the Gaza Industrial Estate, was in part financed by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation through a green energy initiative that set up solar panels — which later provided electricity to some of Hamas’ terror tunnels.

Hamas’ Deputy Minister of Economy Abdel Fattah Zrai, who was killed by the IDF last year, also signed on to a joint agreement greenlighting that solar project in a May 2022 ceremony.

The hotels — the Blue Beach hotel and Al-Mastal Hotel, now called the Ayan Hotel — were also used as a training ground for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades and had shafts on their premises that descended directly from some guest rooms into tunnels, according to the suit.

Other solar panels on the roof of the Blue Beach also allegedly provided electricity for Hamas tunnels.

Since-killed Hamas leader Sinwar also “regularly used the hotels to host public and private Hamas events,” according to the suit.

In 2021, the head of Egyptian intelligence visited the Al-Mashtal for a meeting with Sinwar.

Hamas killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians and 46 of whom were American citizens, during the attack — while 254 were kidnapped and taken back to Gaza.

The civil suit filed in DC US District Court alleges Masri violated the Anti-Terrorism Act in “knowingly” assisting Hamas before it carried out the assault that became the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, Israeli philanthropist Eyal Waldman, whose daughter was killed at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, as well as family members of Itay Chen and the slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin are all listed as plaintiffs.

The suit cites three causes of action under the Anti-Terrorism Act: aiding and abetting Hamas, conspiracy with Hamas, and providing material support to a US-designated foreign terrorist organization.

In addition to his development work, Masri sits on the Dean’s Council of Harvard Kennedy School.

Masri’s office said in a statement he “is a successful and respected Palestinian-American entrepreneur and business leader” who was “shocked to learn through the media that a baseless complaint was filed today referring to false allegations against him and certain businesses he is associated with.”

“Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy,” the office added. “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 concerns [sic] parties in the region. He unequivocally opposes violence of any kind. He will seek the dismissal of these false allegations in court.”