Demonstrators at a peaceful pro-Israel march in Boulder, Colorado, were set on fire on Sunday, June 1st, in a brutal attack that left multiple people injured. Authorities arrested a man identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national. The attack is being investigated as an “ideologically motivated act of terrorism” by the FBI.
The attack took place at about 1:26 p.m., when authorities received several emergency calls reporting a man “setting people on fire with an improvised weapon.” Witnesses said the attacker was carrying a homemade flamethrower and shouting slogans such as “Free Palestine” and “We have to end the Zionists, they are killers,” before launching a Molotov cocktail at the crowd.
One witness told FOX31: “Every one of the victims I saw had skin practically melted or hanging from their legs.”
Authorities evacuated several streets in downtown Boulder and confirmed that the suspect was arrested at the scene.
The FBI reported that three of the victims were taken to UCHealth Anschutz campus to be treated for serious burns. Images from the scene show a woman lying on the ground with her hair soaked, while a man assisted other victims using a water jug. The organization Run for Their Lives, which organized the march, confirmed its members were the target of the attack and reiterated the non-political and peaceful nature of the event.
“We have been walking in silence for months for the 58 hostages still held by Hamas. Today, five of our companions were burned. This will not stop our mission,” the group declared in a statement.
According to Department of Homeland Security sources cited by FOX News, Soliman entered the United States legally with a B1/B2 visa in August 2022, which expired in February 2023. He never left the country. He applied for asylum that same year and was also granted a work permit that expired in March 2025.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino stated in a post that the attack is being treated as an “act of ideologically motivated violence” and that terrorism charges are under consideration. The Colorado Attorney General’s Office is also classifying the incident as a “hate crime,” given the profile of the targeted group.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis described the attack as a “heinous act directed at the Jewish community,” emphasizing that it coincided with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. “It is inconceivable that while we are still recovering from the antisemitic murders in Washington D.C., we now face another attack, this time here in Boulder,” he said in a statement.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, was blunt: “This is not a political act. This is terrorism. We must not tolerate even one more inch of this violence.”
Senator Marco Rubio also condemned the events: “Terror has no place in our great country,” he posted on X.
This attack comes just ten days after two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed. Jewish leaders and organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center have denounced a growing wave of hatred fueled by “months of anti-Israel propaganda and institutional tolerance of antisemitism.”
The phrase “Free Palestine,” shouted by the attacker, is increasingly seen as one that, in certain contexts, incites violence. “The ongoing demonization of Israel and Zionism has created a climate in which physical attacks—and even the murder—of Jews becomes inevitable,” said Jim Berk, CEO of the Wiesenthal Center.
