Eight people were injured after a man used a “makeshift flamethrower” and threw Molotov cocktails at members of the group Run for Their Lives who were rallying in Boulder for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, police said.
The founder of Run for Their Lives, Shany Klein, a licensed attorney in California and Israel, thanked law enforcement and fire department officials for “their quick response” and said her “thoughts and prayers were with the victims,” who she hoped would have a “speedy recovery.”
She stressed that Run for Their Lives would continue to be “committed to our mission until all the hostages are returned back home.”
According to the group’s LinkedIn page, Run for the Lives was set up in response to the October 7 attack and calls for “the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas.”
The international advocacy group leads running and walking events to peacefully demand the release of the hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7, 2023, terror attack, according to their website.
“The term ‘Run’ is symbolic, emphasizing that the hostages cannot run for their lives,” they state. “We run or walk on their behalf, because they can’t—and to act before it’s too late.”
They also emphasize that attendees “Don’t protest” and instead “Focus on humanity,” stressing that their activism is a rallying cry for the “innocent children, women, the elderly, and other civilians being held by terrorists – not about the war.”
Rachel Amaru, an organizer with Run for Their Lives’ Boulder chapter, told CBS News the attack was “blatantly antisemitic.”
Mohamed Soliman, 45, was arrested by police on Sunday. Authorities have not yet announced any charges against him, but the FBI said the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism. Soliman is a native of Egypt and entered the country on a visa issued during the administration of former President Joe Biden. His documents expired in March 2025, according to Trump administration officials, who told Fox News.
Soliman reportedly yelled, “End Zionist!” and “Free Palestine” during the attack, according to two sources and an FBI Denver official to CBS.
Ed Victor, who attended the walk on Sunday, said the organization has been holding silent marches every week since October 7, 2023.
The attack has sent shockwaves through the community, he said. The marchers would occasionally encounter hecklers, but would try not to respond. Others would nod, clap, or thank the participants as they walked by, he added.
“All of a sudden, I felt the heat. It was a Molotov cocktail equivalent, a gas bomb in a glass jar, thrown,” he told CBS. He said he never could have anticipated that someone would attack them.
The weekly march typically attracts fewer than 50 people each week, and it usually consists of older individuals, said Rabbi Israel Wilhelm, the director of Chabad at the University of Colorado. Yet this week, “there happened to be children”, he said.
Four women and four men, aged between 52 and 88, were taken to hospitals in the Denver metro area for injuries sustained in the attack. One of the victims remains in critical condition.
The oldest victim, 88, is a Holocaust survivor, said Wilhelm.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, called the Boulder attack “pure antisemitism” and a “terrible antisemitic terror attack.”
