Last Friday, Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, 33, a Gazan native currently residing in Lafayette, Louisiana, was charged in the Western District of Louisiana federal court for his alleged involvement in the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. The detailed complaint, sworn to by an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, claims that Al-Muhtadi is an operative for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (DFLP) military wing, the National Resistance Brigades (NRB), a Gaza-based paramilitary group that admits its participation in the October 7 attack. It also states that Al-Muhtadi lied on a visa application to gain entrance to the United States in September 2024. Given the unique nature of these charges – someone living inside the United States alleged to have had a part in these heinous attacks – it is surprising that this has not garnered more press or attention. 

Specifically, Al-Muhtadi is charged with providing, attempting to provide or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) – Hamas – under Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339B. He is also charged with making false statements relating to his involvement with a paramilitary organization, connection to Hamas, participation in a terrorist attack, and military training on his visa application to enter the United States, pursuant to Title 18 U.S.C. Section 1546. The complaint cites and shows photographic and text evidence of Al-Muhtadi’s affiliation and participation in the DFLP. It includes photographs of him armed with a NRB logo headband, with others who are alleged to be a group of young militants he was training, and a form signed by him appearing to pledge care of a firearm given to him by the NRB. The complaint provides a chilling account of a man who seems exuberant about the terrorist attack in the early morning hours of October 7th and springs into action, eager to help and heed the call of Hamas’s leaders for others to join in. 

Text messages and six audio recordings of calls with Al-Muhtadi and others (obtained by the U.S. in August 2025) are quoted at length. In them, Al-Muhtadi describes his knowledge of Hamas’s attack on Israel immediately after it happened; his intent to enter Israel and participate in the attack; his efforts to gather manpower and munitions before crossing the border; his travel towards Israel; his efforts to avoid detection; and his eventual crossing over the border into Israel. And his presence near Kfar Aza, one of the Kibbutzim that saw horrific violence against its residents, is confirmed by a ping to a cell tower located in that vicinity, according to the complaint. 

As for the visa fraud charges, the complaint explains that his social media postings prove the falsity of several things to which he attested to in June 2024 to obtain his visa. He claimed he did not have any specialized skills or training, including with firearms, yet there are photographs of him practicing  with firearms. He also stated that he had never been a member of or been involved with a paramilitary unit, vigilante unit, rebel group, guerrilla group, or insurgent organization, but the DFLP openly admitted that it helped in the October 7th attack at several Kibbutzim and one of the murderers of a Tanzanian student captured near the kibbutzim was seen wearing a NRB patch on his jacket. There are also photographs showing Al-Muhtadi armed with firearms in an apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he was residing in February 2025. 

This evidence is compelling, particularly on the fraudulent visa charge. Is it sufficient to prove material support of Hamas (the foreign terrorist organization in question)? We will see. The direct link is somewhat circumstantial, which is permissible but, if I were a prosecutor proceeding to trial on the material support charge, I would want more evidence of Al-Muhtadi’s actions as opposed to his aspirations. There may be additional evidence that the government did not want to reveal at this stage, and there could be additional charges to come. Nonetheless, there is good reason to highlight these charges now. People across the political spectrum should still be able to agree that prioritizing counter-terrorism and national security for law enforcement is important. I was critical of those who went out of their way to disparage what I viewed as very worthy charges against Hamas brought by the DOJ during the Biden administration (which do not appear directly related to the charges against Al-Muhtadi). The Wall Street Journal, for example, unfairly called those charges “minor.” And I, like many former DOJ and FBI alumni, have been skeptical of the Trump administration’s diverting so many resources to immigration enforcement while detracting from important investigations involving child trafficking, violent crime, and real national security. 

But there is little question in my mind that, based on the evidence cited in the Al-Muhtadi complaint, these charges represent exactly what we should want and expect from our Department of Justice and FBI: detailed investigation, when warranted by evidence, of national security threats within our own borders. This investigation and charges give me a small shot of confidence that there remain dedicated agents and prosecutors keeping their heads down, blocking out the political noise, and doing the important work that the DOJ has always done.