A Louisiana resident, Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, has been accused by US prosecutors of participating in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, according to recently unsealed court documents. The 33-year-old allegedly armed himself and joined a paramilitary group that fought alongside Hamas during the assault, which resulted in approximately 2,000 deaths and 251 hostages. Since the attack, Israeli strikes in Gaza have reportedly killed over 67,900 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose data is considered reliable by the UN.
A year after the attack, al-Muhtadi allegedly entered the US on a fraudulent visa and obtained permanent residency. He now faces charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as well as visa fraud and document misuse. The FBI complaint identifies him as an operative of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Court documents reveal that al-Muhtadi allegedly coordinated a group of armed fighters to infiltrate Israel during the attack, requesting weapons and ammunition. His phone was reportedly traced to a cell tower near Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a site of a massacre, hours after the attack began.
Al-Muhtadi denied involvement in terrorist activities on his US visa application. After arriving in the US, he lived in several locations before settling in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked in a local restaurant. Arrested on Thursday, he appeared in court on Friday, where he claimed innocence, stating through an interpreter, ‘Yes, but there are a lot of things mentioned here that are so false, I’m innocent.’ While the documents do not accuse him of specific killings, federal prosecutors have previously charged senior Hamas members with the deaths of American citizens during the October 7 attack.