Federal authorities have arrested 33-year-old Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi in Louisiana for his alleged participation in the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and for entering the United States using a fraudulent visa. Al-Muhtadi, a member of a Gaza-based paramilitary group, is accused of arming fighters, coordinating the assault, and crossing into Israel near a site of a deadly massacre. The arrest underscores ongoing efforts to prosecute those involved in the attack that killed dozens, including American citizens.
Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, a 33-year-old Gazan, was arrested in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he had been working at a restaurant. According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, Al-Muhtadi is accused of actively participating in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. He learned of the unfolding assault that morning and "sprang into action," arming himself, recruiting others, and entering Israel, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg stated. Communications from that day show him instructing associates to "bring the rifles," "get ready," and to provide bulletproof vests, ammunition, and full magazines, with one message reading: "If you have a full magazine, bring it to me."
Evidence places Al-Muhtadi near Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a community devastated in the attack where Hamas militants massacred dozens of Israelis and four American citizens, according to the Justice Department. His phone connected to a cell tower there on the morning of October 7, indicating he crossed into Israeli territory behind the initial wave of attackers. Though not yet charged with direct murders, the complaint accuses him of organizing armed fighters in Gaza and coordinating the assault as an operative for the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a group that joined Hamas in the October 7 operation.
After the attack, Al-Muhtadi fraudulently obtained a U.S. immigrant visa under the name Mahmoud Almuhtadi, denying any ties to paramilitary organizations, terrorism, Hamas, or military training. He entered the United States on September 12, 2024, via Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Social media posts later showed him in Tulsa, Oklahoma, holding a Glock pistol. By May 2025, authorities tracked him to Louisiana.
Attorney General Pam Bondi described Al-Muhtadi as "this monster" who participated in "the single deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust." She added, "While nothing can fully heal the scars left by Hamas’s brutal attack, this Department’s Joint Task Force October 7 is dedicated to finding and prosecuting those responsible for that horrific day, including the murder of dozens of American citizens." The DFLP, once designated a foreign terrorist organization but later delisted, has a history of attacks including the 1974 Ma’alot Massacre (27 killed, including 22 children), the 1975 Jerusalem bombing (seven civilians killed), the 2002 West Bank bus ambush (nine killed), and the 1987 "Night of the Gliders" (six Israeli soldiers murdered). Eisenberg noted the arrest as "the first public step in bringing to justice those responsible for harming Americans on that day."