US prosecutors have accused a Louisiana resident of participating in the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel, recently unsealed court documents show.
Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, 33, allegedly armed himself and joined a paramilitary group that fought alongside Hamas in the 2023 attack that saw about 2,000 people killed and 251 taken as hostages.
At least 67,900 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.
A year after the attack, Mr al-Muhtadi allegedly travelled to the US on a fraudulent visa and became a permanent resident.
He was charged with providing, attempting to provide or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and the fraud and misuse of a visa or other documents.
Mr al-Muhtadi was allegedly an operative of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the complaint brought by the FBI.
He is accused of coordinating a “group of armed fighters” to cross into Israel after hearing about the attack and asked one man to “bring the rifles”, court documents show.
Mr al-Muhtadi sent messages asking others to bring a bulletproof vest for another man and ammunition, prosecutors allege.
Hours after the 7 October attack began, his phone pinged a cell tower near Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the sight of a massacre, the documents said.
The complaint said that Mr al-Muhtadi denied ever having been involved in terrorist activities on his US visa application.
After coming to the US, he lived in a handful of places before landing in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked in a local restaurant.
He was arrested on Thursday, the Justice Department said.
During a court appearance in Louisiana on Friday, he was asked if he understood the charges against him. An interpreter translated his response as: “Yes, but there are a lot of things mentioned here that are so false, I’m innocent,” according to the New York Times.
The documents do not accuse Mr al-Muhtadi of specific crimes or killings. Federal prosecutors have previously charged senior members of Hamas with the deaths of American citizens on 7 October.
By BBC News
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