Demonstration for Israeli Hostages Attacked with Flamethrower and Molotov Cocktails

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45 year old Egyptian immigrant, used a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack a peaceful weekly demonstration in Boulder, Colorado on behalf of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

During the attack, witnesses said he shouted, “Free Palestine!” and “End Zionist!”

The injured included fifteen people aged 25 to 88, one of them in critical condition, and a dog. The oldest was Holocaust survivor Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The FBI deemed the attack an act of terrorism. Soliman was jailed in Boulder County facing $10 million bond. He was charged with:

• a federal hate crime
• 16 counts of attempted murder
• first-degree assault
• causing serious injury to an at-risk adult or someone over 70
• using explosives or incendiary devices.

Although born in Egypt, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait before immigrating to Colorado in August 2022 on a non-immigrant visa. His first effort to get an entry visa to the USA was denied in 2005. In February 2023 he transitioned to an immigrant visa with work authorization which expired in March 2025. After his arrest, he told the FBI about an iPhone hidden in his Colorado Springs home with messages to his family and a journal. Also after his arrest, his wife brought to Colorado Springs police an iPhone that she said belonged to him.

He planned the attack for a year. He took training to learn to handle a gun, but could not buy a gun because he was not a USA citizen. He turned his attention to fire as a weapon instead.

The only police contacts with him or his family prior to the attack were minor traffic stops and calls to the family home that involved juvenile contact with no criminal component.

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