Well-Connected Billionaire Leveraged US Tax Dollars To Help Hamas Gear Up For Oct. 7, Lawsuit Alleges

A Palestinian-American billionaire helped lay the groundwork for the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks, families of American Oct. 7 massacre victims alleged in a new lawsuit released Monday.

The lawsuit targets Bashar Masri, a Palestinian-American billionaire who allegedly used his Gaza-based companies to quietly aid Hamas in building key infrastructure that would be used in the conflict, including tunnels, buildings for high-level meetings and even power generation. Some of the construction was done using U.S. taxpayer funds, according to the lawsuit, which pointed to funds doled out by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“By actively working with Hamas to build and maintain its attack tunnel infrastructure while simultaneously advancing Hamas’s campaign of deception, Defendants aided and abetted and conspired with Hamas, and the October 7 Attack and the deaths of soldiers and civilians thereafter were a foreseeable consequence of Defendants’ collaboration with Hamas,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiffs—American victims of the October 7 Attack and its aftermath, and their family members and their estates—therefore bring this action under the Anti-Terrorism Act (“ATA”) as amended by the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (“JASTA”).”

The billionaire has rejected the allegations, with Masri’s office telling The New York Times that he “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,” Masri’s office continued.

Defendants in the case include the Palestine Development & Investment Company, Palestine Real Estate Investment Company and Palestinian Industrial Estate Development Company, according to court filings. The plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit that Marsi used his holding company, Massar International Ltd, to secure U.S. tax dollars for his construction and development companies. Massar International did not respond to a request for comment.