Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, 33, a native of the Gaza Strip who has been living in Lafayette, La., was arrested on Thursday and charged with being involved in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
“After hiding out in the United States, this monster has been found and charged with participating in the atrocities of Oct. 7, the single deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust,” stated Pamela Bondi, the U.S. attorney general.
“While nothing can fully heal the scars left by Hamas’s brutal attack, this department’s Joint Task Force Oct. 7 is dedicated to finding and prosecuting those responsible for that horrific day, including the murder of dozens of American citizens,” she stated. “We will continue to stand by Jewish Americans and Jewish people around the world against antisemitism and terrorism in all its forms.”
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS that “this individual, who has blood on his hands, lied on his visa application to enter the United States.”
“I thank the U.S. authorities for apprehending this terrorist and making the United States a safer place,” he said.
The federal government alleges that Al-Muhtadi “sprang into action” on Oct. 7 when he saw Hamas’s “barbaric attack on Israel and civilians from multiple nations” unfold.
The Louisiana resident “armed himself, recruited additional marauders and then entered Israel, where there is evidence placing him near one of the worst-hit Israeli communities,” stated John Eisenberg, assistant U.S. attorney general for national security.
Al-Muhtadi committed fraud and obtained a visa to the United States, “where he hoped to remain undetected,” Eisenberg stated. “This arrest is the first public step in bringing to justice those responsible for harming Americans on that day.”
Court documents allege that Al-Muhtadi is part of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The complaint states that Al-Muhtadi’s phone operated using a cell tower near Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza border, “the location of a horrifying massacre by Hamas and its supporters resulting in the deaths of many civilians, including at least four American citizens.”
“In addition, Al-Muhtadi allegedly provided false information in his U.S. visa application relating to his involvement with a paramilitary organization, connection to Hamas, participation in a terrorist attack and military training,” the Justice Department stated.
“Al-Muhtadi swore to the accuracy of numerous materially false statements in his visa application with respect to at least his affiliation with DFLP, the NRB and Hamas, his training and his involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks,” the department said.
He entered the United States on Sept. 12, 2024, per U.S. Department of Homeland Security records.
The Justice Department said that the FBI’s New Orleans field office is also investigating, with “valuable assistance from Israeli authorities.” It named several Israeli authorities, including its Security Agency. The FBI office in Israel, the Louisiana State Police, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Lafayette Police Department and the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office also offered “significant assistance,” it said.
The Justice Department’s task force first discovered that Al-Muhtadi was in the United States, it said.
Zachary Keller, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, stated that “Oct. 7 is a day that lives in infamy for so many, gentile and Jew alike, because of the terrorist attack on Israel that began a wave of antisemitic violence.”
