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A dual US-German citizen has been arrested on charges that he travelled to Israel and tried to firebomb the branch office of the US embassy in Tel Aviv, officials said on Sunday.
Federal prosecutors in New York said Joseph Neumeyer, 28, walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails but was confronted by a guard and eventually ran away, dropping his backpack as the officer tried to grab him.
Law enforcement then tracked Mr Neumeyer down to a hotel a few blocks away from the embassy and arrested him, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.
The attack took place against the backdrop of Israel’s war in Gaza, now in its 20th month.
Mr Neumeyer, originally from Colorado, travelled from the US to Canada in early February and arrived in Israel in late April, according to court records. He had made a series of threatening social media posts before attempting the attack, prosecutors said.
Israeli officials deported Mr Neumeyer to New York on Saturday and he had an initial court appearance before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Sunday, the same day his criminal complaint was unsealed.
Mr Neumeyer’s court-appointed lawyer Jeff Dahlberg declined to comment, and the US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During his first term, President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite Palestinian objections and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city.
