US prosecutors have charged a Louisiana resident with participating in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, newly unsealed court documents show.
Mahmoud Amin Yaqoub Al-Muhtadi, 33, allegedly armed himself and joined a paramilitary group that fought alongside Hamas in the 2023 offensive that saw about 1,200 people killed and about 250 taken hostage.
At least 67,900 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.
A year after the attack, Al-Muhtadi allegedly traveled to the United States on a fraudulent visa and became a permanent resident.
He is charged with providing, attempting to provide, or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and fraud and abuse of a visa or other documents.
Al-Muhtadi was allegedly a member of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the complaint filed by the FBI.
Court documents show he is accused of coordinating “a group of armed fighters” to cross into Israel after hearing about the attack and asking one of the men to “bring guns.”
Prosecutors allege that Al-Muhtadi sent messages asking others to bring another man’s bulletproof vest and ammunition.
The documents stated that hours after the October 7 attack began, his phone rang on a communications tower near Kibbutz Kfar Azza, the site of a massacre.
The complaint stated that Al-Muhtadi denied his involvement in any terrorist activities in his application for a US visa.
After coming to the United States, he lived in a few places before landing in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked at a local restaurant.
The Justice Ministry said he was arrested on Thursday.
During his court appearance in Louisiana on Friday, he was asked if he understood the charges against him. One translator translated his response as follows: “Yes, but there are a lot of things mentioned here that are very wrong. I am innocent,” according to the New York Times.
The documents do not accuse Mr. Al-Muhtadi of committing specific crimes or killings. Federal prosecutors had previously charged prominent members of Hamas with the killing of American citizens on October 7.