Attack on demonstration calling for release of Israeli hostages was first where group faced violence

Demonstrators with Run for Their Lives have staged global events since 2023 calling for Hamas to release Israeli hostages, but organizers say the walk in Boulder, Colorado, where 12 people were injured in a fiery attack, was the first in which they have faced violence.

The group of about 20 people was finishing its weekly demonstration Sunday at a bustling pedestrian mall when a man with a makeshift flamethrower yelled “Free Palestine” and threw Molotov cocktails into the crowd, authorities said.

Among the 12 people injured was a Holocaust survivor who did not want her name shared publicly, said Ginger Delgado of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, who is acting as a spokesperson for the family.

Little was known immediately about the other 11 victims, and none were ready to talk as of Tuesday, according to police liaisons assigned to them. They range in age from 52 to 88, and their injuries vary from serious to minor, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said.

The violence in downtown Boulder unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which 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 Israel and the hostages say they are scared but have vowed to keep demonstrating.

The man charged in the 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 and told police he would do it again, according to an FBI affidavit. He 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 weekly walks, said Shira Weiss, the organization's global coordinator.

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

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, and Jewish and non-Jewish community members.

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

Redfearn, the police chief, said there was no formal record of the group requesting security before Sunday but they may have asked an officer already stationed at the mall.

Federal and state prosecutors filed separate criminal cases against Soliman, charging him with a hate crime and attempted murder, respectively. The Egyptian national, who federal officials say is in the U.S. illegally, 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 mall when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking and a “boom” followed by people screaming.

Six people were taken to a hospital, and three remained at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital on Tuesday, spokesperson Kelli Christensen said. Others were treated at the scene, Kornfeld said.

The attack came at the start of the 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.

A group representing families of the hostages reached out to Colorado organizers after the attack and plan to send at least one family to join the Boulder chapter Sunday as it resumes its Run for Their Lives events, Kornfeld said. The Boulder Jewish Festival, a local cultural celebration, is also scheduled for that day in the same area where the attack took place.

Susanna Speier learned of the attack after participating in a Run for Their Lives event in Denver, where people wore badges bearing the names of the hostages and held up their photos. She said she has seen past events in Denver grow adversarial, with people yelling obscenities at the group.

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

Lowengart said he is heartbroken for the Jewish community that raised him and grappling with newfound fear as a vocal Israel supporter on campus, but that will not stop him from speaking out.

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

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

A visitor offers a tribute after leaving a bouquet of flowers at a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse as a light rain falls Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The flag of Israel tops a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse as a light rain falls Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Bouquets of flowers stand along a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse as a light rain falls Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Vickie Gottlieb, left, of Greeley, Colo., joins her husband, Troy, in a prayer for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse, Monday, June 2, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

From left, Carrie Spyva-McIlvaine, Gabriel Velasco and Lisa Turnquist arrive to place bouquets of flowers at a growing memorial outside of the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse after Sunday's attack Monday, June 2, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Vickie Gottlieb, left, of Greeley, Colo., joins her husband, Troy, in a prayer for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse Monday, June 2, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A passer-by touches the flag of Israel taped on to the top of a bollard on the east end of the Pearl Street Mall near the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse Monday, June 2, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Rabbi Fred Greene of Congregation Har Hashem, front, hugs a man outside of the Boulder County, Colo., courthouse after Sunday's attack, Monday, June 2, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

BERLIN (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia as he held talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.

Zelenskyy sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader posted pictures of the negotiating table with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting next to him facing the U.S. delegation.

Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat before the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the U.S. and some European nations had rejected Ukraine’s push to join NATO, Kyiv expects the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.

“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast Ukraine's bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow's security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded tha Ukraine renounce the bid for the alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.

The U.S. government said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace, a demand rejected by Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said that the U.S. had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unworkable.

“I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said. “If we are talking about some buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe that only a police mission should be there and troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5–10 kilometers, for example, then why do Russian troops not withdraw deeper into the occupied territories by the same distance?”

Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on a freeze along the line of contact, saying that “today a fair possible option is we stand where we stand.”

Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of the Donetsk region even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.

Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.

Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive," warning that Moscow will “have very strong objections.”

Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position," he said.

Zelenskyy said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday just before the talks with Trump’s envoys, thanking him on X for his support and adding that “we are coordinating closely and working together for the sake of our shared security.”

Macron vowed on X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”

Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”

He warned that Putin's aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.

Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russia overnight launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones at Ukraine. The air force said 110 had been intercepted or downed, but missile and drone hits were recorded at six locations.

Zelenskyy said Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without power in the south, east and northeast regions and work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to multiple regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.

The Ukrainian president said that in the past week, Russia had launched over 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles of various types at Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 235 Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.

In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house ablaze in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk in the Volgograd region, triggering a fire, according to regional Gov. Andrei Bocharov.

In the Krasnodar region, the Ukrainian drones attacked the town of Afipsky, where an oil refinery is located. Authorities said that explosions shattered windows in residential buildings, but didn’t report any damage to the refinery.

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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The chancellory is pictured during talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Günter Sautter, left, foreign and security policy advisor to the Federal Chancellor, and former Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umjerow arrive for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief advisor to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Ukraine's Secretary of National Security Rustem Umerov, right, and Günter Sautter, Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to Chancellor Merz meet in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

In this grab from a video provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Friday, Dec 12, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy records a video at the road entering of Kupiansk, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP)