A Louisiana man has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of taking part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that left around 2,000 people dead and over 250 taken hostage, according to recently unsealed court documents reviewed by The New York Times.
Federal authorities allege that Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, 33, armed himself and joined a paramilitary group aligned with Hamas during the deadly assault. He is said to have been an operative of the National Resistance Brigades, the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
According to the complaint filed by the FBI, al-Muhtadi coordinated a team of armed fighters to cross into Israel after learning about the attack. Prosecutors claim he sent messages asking others to bring rifles, ammunition, and a bulletproof vest for one of the fighters.
Investigators also said his phone was traced to a cell tower near Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the sites where some of the deadliest massacres took place on October 7.
Court documents state that a year after the attack, al-Muhtadi entered the United States using a fraudulent visa, eventually becoming a permanent resident. He reportedly lived in several states before settling in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked at a local restaurant.
He was arrested on Thursday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, and charged with providing or attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as well as visa fraud.
During his initial court appearance in Louisiana on Friday, an interpreter translated his response to the judge: “Yes, but there are a lot of things mentioned here that are so false. I’m innocent.”
While prosecutors accuse him of supporting a terrorist group, the documents do not link al-Muhtadi to any specific acts of violence or killings. Federal authorities have previously charged several senior Hamas figures for the deaths of U.S. citizens during the October 7 attacks.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry—whose figures are cited by the United Nations as credible—more than 67,900 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since the conflict began.
Source: The New York Times, U.S. Department of Justice, and court documents.
