200 American families sue Palestinian billionaire: "He helped Hamas on the day of the massacre"

Families of victims of the October 7 massacre filed a precedent-setting lawsuit in federal court in New York against Palestinian-American billionaire Bashar Masri. They claim that Masri knowingly helped build Hamas's terror infrastructure in Gaza, including by supplying electricity to attack tunnels where hostages were held. The amount of compensation requested will be determined later.

The plaintiffs are about 200 plaintiffs — all of them U.S. citizens or first-degree relatives of 46 U.S. citizens who were murdered during the terror attack. Among the plaintiffs is former Minister of Science and Technology Yizhar Shai, whose son, the late Staff Sergeant Yaron Uri Shai, an American citizen, fell in battle at Kerem Shalom.

Masri, the former director general of the Karni Industrial Zone, served in recent years as an unofficial adviser to the Trump administration and even maintained direct contacts with the American envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Buehler, who was recently revealed to have held talks with senior Hamas officials.

The core of the lawsuit concerns green projects initiated by Masri's group in Gaza – in particular the Gaza Industrial Estate (GIE), which was established in 1997 with funding from USAID. The plaintiffs claim that the project, which was supposed to promote employment and prosperity, was in effect used as a cover for the operation of an attack tunnel system that penetrated deep into Israeli territory – up to the communities where the massacres took place.

According to the lawsuit, renewable energy development projects – including solar power facilities – provided the critical electricity for the maintenance of Hamas's underground infrastructure. These projects allegedly received extensive funding from international and governmental organizations, including American bodies, with Masri knowing about them and even acting in coordination with Hamas.

The lawsuit is based on the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows U.S. citizens to prosecute any entity that directly or indirectly aided terrorism. The families are demanding compensation for the loss of their loved ones – amounts that could be tripled under the law – as well as punitive damages designed to deter future terror supporters.