The FBI has arrested an 18-year-old student from George Mason University (GMU), accusing him of being involved in a plot to attack the Israeli consulate in New York, in a case involving an undercover informant or agent who helped the teenager come up with the plan.
Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, a first-year student and an Egyptian national, has been charged with one count of distributing information related to explosives that could be used to murder internationally protected persons. The criminal complaint was filed on Monday.
Hassan is currently undergoing deportation proceedings, according to US officials, though the process will likely be delayed until the criminal case is resolved and Hassan completes any sentence if convicted.
According to the criminal complaint, an “FBI confidential human source” contacted Hassan in August, and the two planned an attack on the Israeli consulate together. The attack was to be carried out by the FBI source, while Hassan was responsible for planning it.
An affidavit from an FBI agent in the case states that Hassan shared social media posts praising and supporting the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda.
A snippet of one post included in the affidavit indicated that Hassan had possible suicidal tendencies, with him reportedly saying: “I may end it all.”
In another post, Hassan was also said to have questioned the US’ designation of Hamas as a terrorist group. Over the past year, amid Israel’s war on Gaza, Israeli officials have often equated Hamas with the IS group.
However, Hamas and IS fought a bitter battle against each other in the 2010s, with Hamas eventually rooting out the group from Gaza.
The affidavit states that the FBI source asked Hassan to provide a target for the attack and to send an instructional video on how to make a bomb.
GMU deploys Swat teams on campus
Hassan’s arrest comes a month after the FBI raided the home of two GMU students, with the family saying that officers refused to present a search warrant.
The officers said the raid was connected to an incident in which graffiti related to a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza was spray-painted on the GMU campus. At the time, the university had publicised a $2,000 reward for information about any suspects.
The students, who are sisters, were not arrested during the raid. One is the current co-president of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at GMU, while the other is a former president.
Both students have been banned from campus for four years.
In an email sent to students and seen by Middle East Eye, GMU President Gregory Washington said the two incidents – the FBI raid and Hassan’s arrest – were unrelated.
Washington added that, in response to both incidents, the university is expanding its police presence across campus and deploying a special weapons and tactics (Swat) team.
Universities across the country have been cracking down harder on the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which erupted earlier this year in response to Israel’s war on Gaza. Several human rights groups have recently labelled the war as genocide.
Protests have been calling on university leadership to divest financial interests from companies profiting from the war, but many demonstrations have been met with violent police crackdowns.
A new investigation from the magazine Jewish Currents found that Yale University’s police department was deploying counterterror tactics against pro-Palestinian protesters.
One such tactic involved the use of aerial drones to track protesters.
According to the report, drone flight logs show that Yale possessed a drone manufactured by Skydio, a company that sold 100 drones to the Israeli army following the 7 October attacks on southern Israel, which prompted Israel to launch a full-scale war on Gaza.
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