The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the United States over Israel’s war in Gaza, which has spurred both an increase in antisemitic hate crime as well as moves by conservative supporters of Israel led by President Donald Trump to branded pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic.
His administration has detained protesters of the war without charge and cut off funding to elite US universities that have permitted such demonstrations.
Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old at the University of Colorado who witnessed the Boulder incident, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs. One of them appeared to have been badly burned on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said.
She described seeing a man, whom she presumed to be the attacker standing in the courtyard shirtless, holding a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting.
“Everybody is yelling, ‘get water, get water,'” Coffman said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a prominent Jewish Democrat, said he was closely monitoring the situation.
“This is horrifying, and this cannot continue. We must stand up to antisemitism.”
The attack follows last month’s arrest of a Chicago-born man in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Someone opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.
The shooting fuelled polarisation in the US over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
“We are saddened and heartbroken to learn that an incendiary device was thrown at walkers at the Run for Their Lives walk on Pearl Street as they were raising awareness for the hostages still held in Gaza,” a statement attributed to Boulder’s Jewish Community said.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis posted on social media that it was “unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder”.
Redfearn said he was not able to identify the suspect, whom he noted had been taken to hospital, yet. He added there were multiple injuries among the victims, ranging “from very serious to more minor”.
Source: CNA
