NYC cops hunt for pro-Palestinian activists who attacked man who was holding Israeli flag on Oct. 7 anniversary

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Oct 10, 2024

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NEW YORK — Police have released images of pro-Palestinian activists who attacked a man with an Israeli flag in Manhattan on the anniversary of Hamas’s brutal surprise attack on Israel, officials said Thursday.

The four suspects, one sporting a cast on his arm, played a role in jumping Todd Richman as he showed his pride in Israel at Union Square Park on Monday as mass protests marking the first anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack were held across the city.

Richman, 54, said he was walking with the flag near Union Square just before 4 p.m. when he was accosted by several demonstrators who mocked him before they got physical.

“I just was just walking by,” Richman told the Daily News Monday. When he was assaulted, Richman was wearing a Star of David necklace and a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “BRING THEM HOME NOW,” a reference to the remaining hostages who were kidnapped during Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“They started telling me, ‘Long live Oct. 7. Happy Oct. 7. When’s the next Nova Festival?’ And then they just started banging drums in my face and I was literally just walking down the street doing absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. Unbelievable.”

Seconds later, he said, someone snatched the flag out of his hand.

During the ensuing scuffle, a man wearing a white T-shirt and black jeans struck him with a flagpole, cops said. A second demonstrator, a woman in a black bucket hat, black sweater and red sweatpants, struck him in the face with a tambourine.

Richman suffered a cut to his face during the attack and was treated at the scene by EMS.

“They ripped (the flag) away from me,” he said, “and then the guy hit me in the face and threw a tambourine and they hit me in the face with a flag.”

No arrests have been made in the Union Square attack. Meanwhile, also in Monday’s protests, down by the New York Stock Exchange seven pro-Palestinian activists were arrested for fighting with cops trying to pen them into a barricaded area a half block away.

One of the arrested protesters, 20-year-old Abdultawab Elrais of Rochelle Park, N.J., is accused of kicking an NYPD captain in the chest, police said. He’s charged with obstructing government administration.

Officials said the pro-Palestinian protesters could not stay in front of the stock exchange because demonstrators had spray-painted there in the past.

Pro-Palestinian New York City demonstrators marked the Oct. 7 anniversary with massive protests at Washington Square Park and Morningside Heights, matching wits with cops and college officials who were trying to stay ahead of the crowds.

On Oct. 7, 2023, the terrorist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures. Hamas took 251 hostages back to Gaza, and a year later some 64 are still detained while 117 have been freed and 70 confirmed dead.

Israel, in turn, launched an invasion that has since resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of whom were women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under the jurisdiction of Hamas.

If captured, the four suspects sought for the attack on Richman could face assault charges. The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is also looking into the attack.

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