America's Jewish Community Has Faced a Series of Attacks
The attack on an event in Boulder, Colo., for Israeli hostages on Sunday afternoon was the latest on the Jewish community, following two others in recent weeks involving assailants who expressed anger over the war in Gaza.
On May 21, two people were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., after which the suspect shouted 'Free Palestine.' In April, a man set fire to the residence of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish. The suspect later said the fire was a response to Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
'As the American Jewish community continues to reel from the horrific antisemitic murders in Washington, D.C., it is unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot no less,' Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, said in a statement. 'Several individuals were brutally attacked while peacefully marching to draw attention to the plight of the hostages who have been held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza for 604 days. I condemn this vicious act of terrorism, and pray for the recovery of the victims.'
Colorado's attorney general, Phil Weiser, said in a statement that the attack 'appears to be a hate crime given the group that was targeted.'
'People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences,' he added. 'Hate has no place in Colorado.'
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Boulder attack suspect's wife, 5 children detained by ICE, face deportation: Live updates Police say Mohamed Sabry Soliman arrived at the scene Sunday with 18 Molotov cocktails but threw just two while yelling 'Free Palestine." Show Caption Hide Caption Family of man suspected of Boulder attacker detained by ICE ICE agents detained the wife and children of the man suspected of a fiery attack on pro-Israeli marchers in Boulder, Colorado. Soliman is accused of attacking a weekly pro-Israeli "Run for Their Lives" demonstration on Sunday. Twelve people ages 52 to 88, suffered burns ranging from serious to minor, police said. The wife and five children of the suspect in the fiery assault on pro-Jewish demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, have been detained by immigration officials and are facing immediate deportation, Trump administration officials said Tuesday. 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Soliman, 45, came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in late 2022 and stayed after the visa expired, requesting asylum. His daughter, Habiba Soliman, graduated from high school with honors on May 29 and said she saw the family's move to the U.S. as a chance to fulfill her dream of attending medical school. 12 burned in Boulder attack: Suspect charged with federal hate crime Soliman told investigators he did not complete his attack plan 'because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,' according to a police affidavit. He said "he wanted them to all die ... He said he would go back and do it again and had no regret doing what he did," Boulder Detective John Sailer wrote in court papers. Soliman explained that, to him, anyone who supported the existence of Israel on "our land" is Zionist. He defined "our land" as Palestine, the affidavit said. Soliman arrived at the scene Sunday with 18 Molotov cocktails but threw just two while yelling 'Free Palestine,' according to the affidavit. Soliman told authorities he took a class and learned to shoot a gun while planning the attack − only to find out he could not purchase a gun because he was not a U.S. citizen. He said he then taught himself how to make Molotov cocktails from YouTube videos, the affidavit says. He told authorities no one else knew of his plan but that he did leave a journal with his family. A federal affidavit charging Soliman with a hate crime and attempted murder says he learned about the demonstration from an online search. It says Soliman told investigators he planned the attack for a year and waited for Habiba to graduate from high school before executing it. Habiba Soliman was profiled in an April story published in the Colorado Springs Gazette as one of its "Best and Brightest" senior class scholarship winners. Habiba told the paper she arrived in the United States as a high school sophomore speaking little English. She attended Thomas Maclaren School, a K-12 charter school, where she not only worked on her English but signed up to learn German as her foreign language requirement. She also started an Arabic club. Habiba was born in Egypt but lived in Kuwait for 14 years. Because she was not Kuwaiti, attending medical school there as she wanted was not an option, she said. The move to the United States provided a chance to fulfill her dream, she said. 'Coming to the USA has fundamentally changed me,' she said. 'I learned to adapt to new things even if it was hard. I learned to work under pressure and improve rapidly in a very short amount of time. Most importantly, I came to appreciate that family is the unchanging support.' The Boulder Jewish Community will host a vigil Wednesday afternoon, according to the Mountain States office of the Anti-Defamation League, which combats antisemitism. "In moments like these, our strength is in our unity,'' the organization said in an e-mail. 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Unable to purchase a gun, Soliman told investigators he turned to gasoline, glass bottles and a backpack sprayer often used by landscapers to dispense pesticide or fertilizer. Soliman told investigators he stopped several times on his drive from Colorado Springs to buy bottles for the Molotov cocktails, the 87-octane gas to fill them and to Home Depot to buy flowers as camouflage to make it easier to "get as close as possible to the group." − Trevor Hughes Run for Their Lives, the organization whose members were targeted Sunday, seems a curious choice for an attack. The group, which said it has an active presence in 230 locations worldwide, doesn't advocate for a political agenda but rather for the release of hostages held in Gaza since the brutal assault on Israeli border communities led by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023. 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