October 7 Victims File Suit Against Arab Billionaire Who Reportedly Advised Trump Hostage Negotiator

On Monday, American victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of more than 1200 people in Israel filed a lawsuit against a U.S. billionaire who reportedly advised the Trump administration envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, accusing the billionaire of aiding Hamas in the October 7 attack. Boehler was negotiating directly with the terrorist group Hamas in March.

Billionaire Bashar Masri, who lives in Washington D.C., “is portrayed in the lawsuit as a central figure who leveraged his cultivated image as a peace-building entrepreneur to secure funding while covertly supporting Hamas,” attorney Marina Medvin, who represented some of the January 6 defendants, noted, adding, “His alleged background includes participation in the First Intifada and ties to Qatari investors linked to Hamas. His companies PADICO, PRICO, PIEDCO, and Massar International are accused of being under Masri’s control and instrumental in owning, operating, and integrating the properties into Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.”

Interesting new lawsuit filed today in DC by American October 7 victims against Bashar Masri, a US billionaire, accusing him of aiding Hamas in the October 7 attack.

Masri advised Trump admin on Hamas negotiations, specifically advising Adam Boehler, who conducted unprecedented…

— Marina Medvin ???????? (@MarinaMedvin) April 7, 2025

“Masri and the companies he controls including Defendants Palestine Development & Investment Company (“PADICO”), Palestine Real Estate Investment Company (“PRICO”), and Palestinian Industrial Estate Development Company (“PIEDCO”) developed and operated prime properties in Gaza for outwardly legitimate purposes. But in reality, they were also used to construct and conceal Hamas’s attack tunnels, store and launch its rockets at Israel, host Hamas leadership and foot soldiers, train Hamas naval commandos-and even to produce electricity for Hamas’s attack tunnel infrastructure,” the lawsuit states. “Just prior to the October 7 Attack, Masri even installed an individual closely tied to Hamas as Chairman of PIEDCO.”

“As far back as 2014, Al Mashtal Hotel, adorned with large UN and EU signage on its roof, hosted a significant network of Hamas attack tunnels used to launch rockets into Israel and served as a command center for Hamas’s leaders during its conflict with Israel that summer,” the lawsuit continues. “The IDF eventually struck the launch sites and damaged the hotel. In the following years, Defendants worked closely with Hamas to renovate and refurbish the hotels, including electrical upgrades used to power Hamas’s tunnel network beneath them, and to restore and enhance the rocket launching sites positioned near the hotels, which Hamas deployed on October 7, 2023, and thereafter. Hamas’s terrorist tunnel network not only ran under Masri’s hotels, but the tunnels were accessible directly from guest rooms and other facilities inside the hotels.”

While Boehler was meeting with Hamas, he made statements in which he referenced Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said he could see members of Hamas being “nice guys,” stating:

I spoke with Ron, and I’m sympathetic. He has someone that he doesn’t know well, making direct contact with Hamas. Maybe I would see them and say, “Look, they don’t have horns growing out of their head. They’re actually guys like us. They’re pretty nice guys.

Boehler also said he “wanted to say to Hamas, what is the endgame that you want here? Not the dream endgame, but what do you think is realistic at this point?” Asked whether he “realistically” thought “that Hamas would eventually agree to lay down its weapons and not be part of Gaza’s political future,” he immediately replied, “I do believe that.”

Boehler later withdrew his nomination for special presidential envoy for hostage affairs but is still involved in hostage negotiations.