Demonstrators with Run for Their Lives have staged global events since 2023 calling for Hamas to release Israeli hostages, but organizers say the walk in Boulder, Colorado, where 12 people were injured in a fiery attack, was the first in which they have faced violence.
The group of about 20 people was finishing its weekly demonstration Sunday at a bustling pedestrian mall when a man with a makeshift flamethrower yelled “Free Palestine” and threw Molotov cocktails into the crowd, authorities said.
Among the 12 people injured was a Holocaust survivor who did not want her name shared publicly, said Ginger Delgado of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, who is acting as a spokesperson for the family.
Little was known immediately about the other 11 victims, and none were ready to talk as of Tuesday, according to police liaisons assigned to them. They range in age from 52 to 88, and their injuries vary from serious to minor, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said.
The violence in downtown Boulder unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitism in the United States. A week earlier a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
U.S. supporters of Israel and the hostages say they are scared but have vowed to keep demonstrating.
Suspect wanted ‘to kill all Zionist people’
The man charged in the attack told police he planned it for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people,” a reference to the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, whose first name also was spelled Mohammed in some court documents, confessed to trying to kill members of the local Run for Their Lives chapter and told police he would do it again, according to an FBI affidavit. He posed as a gardener to get close to the group as they waved U.S. and Israeli flags and read out the names of the 58 people believed to still be in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Run for Their Lives is a global grassroots initiative that started in October 2023 after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. The group’s 230 chapters seek to raise awareness of the hostages’ plight with weekly walks, said Shira Weiss, the organization's global coordinator.
“We’re really about humanity and nothing else,” Weiss said.
Demonstrators marched 18 minutes for ‘life’
The Boulder group walks every weekend for 18 minutes, the numerical value of the Hebrew word “chai,” which means “life.” Participants include retirees, families with children, and Jewish and non-Jewish community members.
Rachel Amaru, leader of the Boulder chapter, spoke to local police the night before the demonstration but was out of town the day it took place, according to fellow organizer Miri Kornfeld in Denver. She said Amaru requested extra security following the attack in Washington and, moving forward, will ask for a police escort for the group.
Redfearn, the police chief, said there was no formal record of the group requesting security before Sunday but they may have asked an officer already stationed at the mall.
Federal and state prosecutors filed separate criminal cases against Soliman, charging him with a hate crime and attempted murder, respectively. The Egyptian national, who federal officials say is in the U.S. illegally, faces additional state charges related to the incendiary devices, and more charges are possible in federal court, where the Justice Department will seek a grand jury indictment
Photos and video from the scene in Boulder, 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Denver, showed a burning woman lying on the ground in a fetal position and a man helping to put out the flames using a jug of water. Witness Alex Osante said he was across the mall when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking and a “boom” followed by people screaming.
Six people were taken to a hospital, and three remained at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on Tuesday, spokesperson Kelli Christensen said. Others were treated at the scene, Kornfeld said.
Jewish community grapples with fear during holiday
The attack came at the start of the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates God giving the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai in Egypt. Rabbi Yisroel and Leah Wilhelm, directors of the Rohr Chabad House at the University of Colorado, have asked people to keep victims in their prayers and not let the attack take the joy out of their Shavuot celebrations.
A group representing families of the hostages reached out to Colorado organizers after the attack and plan to send at least one family to join the Boulder chapter Sunday as it resumes its Run for Their Lives events, Kornfeld said. The Boulder Jewish Festival, a local cultural celebration, is also scheduled for that day in the same area where the attack took place.
Susanna Speier learned of the attack after participating in a Run for Their Lives event in Denver, where people wore badges bearing the names of the hostages and held up their photos. She said she has seen past events in Denver grow adversarial, with people yelling obscenities at the group.
“Run for Their Lives is an organization built on love, and if you ever have the chance to walk with them, you will feel that love to the utmost,” said Caleb Loewengart, a student at the University of Colorado Boulder who grew up in the community.
Loewengart and his parents have marched with the Boulder group in the past but were not in attendance Sunday. Many of the people who show up weekly to walk along Pearl Street have been present in Loewengart's life since his early childhood.
Lowengart said he is heartbroken for the Jewish community that raised him and grappling with newfound fear as a vocal Israel supporter on campus, but that will not stop him from speaking out.
Kornfeld said Jewish people who are not outspoken about Israel are afraid, too.
“This issue isn’t something that’s just contained to the Middle East. It’s not something that is just contained in Israel,” she said. “We’re seeing the effects of unchecked antisemitism all around the world, and we must stand up in the strongest way possible. Elected officials and everybody who has a heart needs to stand up against it in all of its forms.”
Hannah Schoenbaum And Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press
