Senior US official pressured Oct. 7 victims to drop restitution case, lawsuit says

Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.A senior US government official has pressured the families of victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror invasion to drop a lawsuit against a prominent Palestinian-American businessman who is accused of allowing the terror group to use his properties, according to a court filing last month.The businessman, Bashar Masri, denies all allegations of wrongdoing.The lawsuit, filed last year, argued that Hamas deceived Israel ahead of the invasion by feigning an interest in developing Gaza, and claimed that Masri and his companies were “an integral part of that grand deception.”“They owned and operated flagship properties in Gaza that they knowingly and deliberately integrated into Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure and that were crucial elements in Hamas’s attack plan on October 7,” the lawsuit said.The plaintiffs were around 200 American victims of the October 7 attack and their family members, including the families of slain…

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