Since 2023, Run for Their Lives demonstrators have held global events demanding Hamas release Israeli hostages. However, organizers state that the walk in Boulder, Colorado, where 12 individuals were hurt in an incendiary attack, was the first instance of violence they encountered.

As the group concluded their weekly protest on a busy pedestrian mall on Sunday, a man wielding a rudimentary flamethrower shouted “Free Palestine” and hurled Molotov cocktails into the crowd, authorities reported.

Details about the 12 people injured in the incident were scant initially, and as of Monday, none were prepared to speak, police liaisons noted. The victims range in age from 52 to 88, and their injuries vary from critical to minor, according to Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn.

The violence in downtown Boulder unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war that 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 the Israeli hostages say they’re scared but have vowed to keep demonstrating.

Attacker wanted to ‘kill all Zionist people’

The man charged in the Boulder 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 with Molotov cocktails and told police he would do it again, according to an FBI affidavit. He had 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 many of the chapters still walking weekly, said Shira Weiss, the global coordinator for Run for Their Lives.

“We’re really about humanity and nothing else,” Weiss said.

Demonstrators marched 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, Jewish and non-Jewish community members.

Rachel Amaru, leader of the Boulder chapter, had spoken to local police the night before the demonstration but was out of town the day of, said fellow organizer Miri Kornfeld in Denver. Amaru had requested extra security following the attack in Washington and, moving forward, will ask for a police escort for the group.

Federal and state prosecutors filed separate criminal cases against Soliman, charging him with a hate crime and attempted murder, respectively. He 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 pedestrian mall when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking and a “boom” followed by people yelling and screaming.

Six of the injured people were taken to hospitals, and four have since been released, Kornfeld said. Others may have been treated at the scene, she said.

Jewish community grapples with fear during holiday

The attack also came at the start of the Jewish 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.

“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 group in the past but were not in attendance for Sunday’s attack. Many of the people who show up weekly to walk along Pearl Street have been present in Loewengart’s life since his early childhood.

The college student said he’s heartbroken for the Jewish community that raised him and grappling with newfound fear as a vocal Israel supporter on the nearby university campus. But that fear, he said, will not stop him from speaking out.

Jewish people who are not outspoken about Israel are afraid, too, Kornfeld said.

“This issue isn’t something that’s just contained to the Middle East. It’s not something that is just contained in Israel,” Kornfeld 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 all around the world.”