Nearly 200 family members of the victims of the October 7, 2023, attack filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday against Bashar al-Masri, a Palestinian-American billionaire "linked to the Trump administration," whom they allege aided and encouraged Hamas to carry out the attack.

The lawsuit accuses Al-Masry of intentionally cooperating with Hamas to develop commercial properties in Gaza that concealed Hamas's complex network of military tunnels and provided them with electricity. The lawsuit seeks damages under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

It is noteworthy that Al-Masry provided advice and traveled by private plane to meet with Adam Boehler, US President Donald Trump's former nominee for special presidential envoy for hostage affairs and the current special envoy at the US State Department. He conducted unprecedented direct negotiations with Hamas last March, according to a US statement issued by the White House on March 6, after Israeli media reports revealed the meeting.

The lawsuit alleges that "as chairman of the Palestine Development and Investment Company, Al-Masri made deals to develop and operate hotels, an industrial zone, and other businesses in Gaza, including directly with Hamas officials, according to the lawsuit and data from the company's website. These businesses included the Al-Mashtal Hotel, which the IDF identified in 2014 as a Hamas rocket launching site, and which the lawsuit alleges was renovated by Al-Masri's company under a contract with a Hamas-affiliated construction company." The lawsuit also alleges that Hamas used the hotel for terrorist operations before, during, and after the October 7 attack.

According to the Jewish Press Service (JNS), Gary Ossen, one of the lead attorneys representing the families against Masri, told the agency that this cycle of repeated reinvestment in properties used by Hamas represents a “continuing pattern” of complicity with the terrorist group on the part of Masri and the other defendants.

“When hotels are damaged by Israeli airstrikes or the Gaza industrial zone is damaged, they not only stop investing, but they continue to rebuild the infrastructure,” Ossen said. “If someone doesn’t want to engage with or support Hamas, they’re supposed to say, ‘Well, they’re firing rockets out of the tunnels at the Al-Mashtal Hotel, maybe we should get out of that investment.’ But no, according to the lawsuit, not only do they go back and renovate and invest more money and more of other people’s money, but they help Hamas with its tunnels again.” “Nothing changes.”

Al-Masry's office denied the allegations in a statement sent to the right-wing Jewish News Agency (JNS), saying it would strive to have them dismissed in court.

The statement said: "Bashar Masri is a successful and respected Palestinian-American businessman and leader. He was shocked to learn through the media of the baseless complaint filed today, alleging false allegations against him and some of the companies with which he is associated. Neither he nor these entities have ever engaged in illegal activities or provided support for violence and extremism."

"Bashar al-Masri has been involved in development and humanitarian work for decades," the statement added. "His continued efforts to promote regional peace and stability have been widely appreciated by the United States and all stakeholders in the region. He categorically opposes violence in all its forms."

It's worth noting that Bashar Masri was born in Nablus to a prominent and wealthy Palestinian business family. He was educated in Egypt and the United States, graduating from Virginia Tech and eventually becoming a US citizen. In the mid-1990s, he returned to Ramallah and established a variety of business ventures.

Through his company, investments, or control of other entities, Al-Masri manages or owns stakes in some of the largest Palestinian companies, with a market capitalization of hundreds of millions of dollars on the Palestine Stock Exchange in Nablus.

In 2018, Fortune magazine ranked him 38th on its list of the world's greatest business leaders, and he is a member of the Harvard Kennedy School's Dean's Council.

The lead attorney in the lawsuit, Ossen, told JNS that Masri's dealings with Hamas officials in the period leading up to October 7, 2023, are inconsistent with how he presents himself to the world as a legitimate Palestinian businessman.

“It’s hard to believe the extent of the property owners’ complicity,” Ossen said. “The fact that Masri was in Gaza three weeks before October 7, promoting his green technology at the hotel, presenting himself and his companies as saving the environment and helping Palestinians get regular electricity—while at the same time, some of the solar electricity was being diverted to Hamas tunnels.” He added, “In my opinion, there’s a level of duplicity in all of this that’s irreconcilable with that moderate outward appearance.”

According to the case, Al-Masry's alleged direct dealings with Hamas include a $60 million solar energy project in Gaza announced by his company in September 2023, and a 2022 agreement with Abdel Fattah Al-Zarii, the deputy minister of economy in the Hamas government.

The Israeli occupation army assassinated Al-Zarii in an airstrike in 2024, saying he served in Hamas's weapons manufacturing division and played a role in the seizure of humanitarian aid.

It is unclear how Masri became associated with Trump's envoy, Buehler, although Masri has extensive business dealings with Qatar, including a Qatari investment of approximately $1 billion in one of Masri's real estate development projects north of Ramallah.

Before filing the lawsuit, JNS said it had asked the State Department for details about al-Masry's connections to Boehler, including travel by private plane and whether he had advised any other administration officials. A State Department spokesperson told the agency, "We work closely with our partners and external intermediaries in our efforts to secure the release of Americans detained abroad." He added, "We have no additional details to share about Special Envoy Boehler's travel."

US President Donald Trump nominated Boehler as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs last January, but Boehler's nomination was withdrawn following direct negotiations with Hamas in March. Boehler remains a special envoy at the State Department.

In a social media post in December, before taking office, Trump described Boehler as a key negotiator in the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries.

It's worth noting that Boehler was also a college roommate of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and served as CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a federal agency, during the first Trump administration. In 2020, Boehler announced that Masri would serve on the DFC's advisory board, a position he held until 2023.