Eight injured in ‘flamethrower' attack on Israeli hostage protest in US
An Israeli flag is fixed to a street sign as police stand by off Pearl Street on the scene of an attack on demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Eli Imadali / AFP)
A man yelling 'free Palestine' used incendiary devices to torch protesters rallying in support of Israeli hostages, injuring at least eight people in the US state of Colorado on Sunday.
The FBI said it was investigating the incident as a 'targeted terror attack' and identified the suspect as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman.
He was booked into the county jail just before midnight on multiple felony charges, according to county records. His bond has been set at $10 million.
Police in the city of Boulder said it was too early to determine a motive for the attack, which took place shortly before 1:30 pm (1930 GMT) at a demonstration outside a mall.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish activist group, said the 'violent antisemitic attack' occurred at Sunday's 'Run for Their Lives' event, a weekly gathering of the Jewish community in solidarity with hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.
FBI agent Mark Michalek told reporters the attack happened at a 'regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event.'
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'Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary into the crowd,' he said, adding that 'the suspect was heard to yell: 'Free Palestine!''
Boulder Police said that eight victims, four men and four women aged between 52 and 88, were transported to hospitals.
Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told reporters that 'at least one victim was very seriously injured, probably safe to say critical condition.'
The suspect was also injured before being taken into custody, Redfearn said.
Molotov cocktails
In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding clear bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.
He can be heard screaming 'End Zionists!' and 'They are killers!' towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.
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Other images showed billowing black smoke.
Boulder resident Alexis Cendon said he felt 'very, very scared' after hearing about the attack near his workplace.
Sunday's attack occurred during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It comes almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect, who shouted 'Free Palestine,' was arrested.
Boulder Police Chief Redfearn insisted it was 'way too early to speculate motive,' but FBI chief Kash Patel described the attack as 'a targeted terror attack.'
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser labeled it 'a hate crime.'
'People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences,' Weiser said.
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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted on X that the suspect was a foreign national who 'illegally overstayed (his) visa.'
Fox News and CBS both cited US officials as saying Soliman was an Egyptian national.
The White House said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident.
'Burning the streets'
Israel's top diplomat Gideon Saar condemned Sunday's 'terrible antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews in Boulder.'
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also voiced outrage.
'Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border — it is already burning the streets of America,' he said in a statement.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also described the Boulder incident as a 'targeted terror attack,' while Attorney General Pam Bondi termed it 'a horrific anti-Semitic attack.'
Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle expressed revulsion.
'Tonight, a peaceful demonstration was targeted in a vile, antisemitic act of terror,' top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a statement. 'Once again, Jews are left reeling from repeated acts of violence and terror.'
Several organizations also decried the violence.
'This is an attack on all of us — and we will not stay silent,' the Israeli-American Council said in a statement.
– By: © Agence France-Presse
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