An Egyptian man living in Virginia who was facing deportation has been charged with planning an attack at the Israeli consulate in New York City.
Abdullah Azz al-Din Taha Muhammad Hassan allegedly gave bomb-making instructions and plans for the attack on the Manhattan consulate to an undercover FBI source, according to court documents. He was arrested Tuesday, the FBI told Fox News Digital.
Hassan is charged with disseminating information regarding explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction in furtherance of the commission of a federal crime.
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On the other side of a pro-Palestinian protest area, a group of pro-Israel demonstrators, holding Israeli flags, gathered in front of the Consulate General of Israel in New York City. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“The FBI office in New York wants to reassure our Jewish community here New York that our office – along with our law enforcement partners – remain vigilant in our efforts to identify, investigate and disrupt potential threats to our community, utilizing every tool at our disposal. As always, we urge all community members to report suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities and call 911 in the event of imminent violence or threats to life,” the FBI said in a statement.
“We will continue to work to ensure our communities remain a safe place for everyone, and we thank the public for their continued trust and partnership.”
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Hassan caught the FBI’s attention after Fairfax County police informed federal authorities that a tipster had alerted police to his social media posts on X. The tipster said the account engaged in “radical and terrorism-oriented behavior ‘.
In several messages, Hassan praised the Islamic State group and other radical figures, federal prosecutors said. In August he started messaging with a Confidential FBI source whom he believed he had recruited to carry out a “mass casualty attack,” authorities said.
Protesters attend an ’emergency meeting for Gaza’ outside the Israeli consulate in New York City, October 9, 2023. (Jennifer Mitchell for Fox News Digital)
Over several weeks, Hassan instructed the informant on how to make a bomb, acquire weapons and make a “martyrdom video,” authorities said. In November, he reportedly targeted Israel’s Consulate General as the target of the attack, saying it would be easier to carry out an attack with small arms and be “tortured” by police.
He believed New York would be “a goldmine of targets” for an attack, prosecutors said. As the pair planned the attack, Hassan also allegedly instructed him to book flights to countries without extradition agreements with the United States. During the attack, Hassan said the source could either kill people at the consulate with an assault rifle or detonate an explosive vest while standing in a group of targets, according to court documents.
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Hassan also asked for the source to livestream the attack so he could watch it in real time, authorities said.
In a statement, Jonathan Harounoff, the international spokesman for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said the Jewish state “will not back down from terror.”
“We will not remain silent in the face of hatred and violence,” he said. “We will not stop in our pursuit of justice and peace. We will continue our fight to return all 100 of our hostages still held in Hamas’ terror tunnels. in Gaza.”
Sara Netanyahu and Ofir Akunis, Consul General of Israel, attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech during the 79th session of the General Assembly at UN Headquarters. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Ofir Akunis, Israel’s consul general in New York, expressed gratitude to authorities for thwarting the alleged attack.
“This attempted attack by terrorist organizations is an attack on the sovereign territory of the State of Israel in its entirety,” he wrote on X. “It is proof that terror knows no borders and that we must fight it everywhere and at all times. it is a threat to the Western world and its values must be fought together by all Western democracies. Together we will triumph.’
