New Jersey man accused of "attempting to provide material support" to terrorist group after Hamas attacks on Israel

A 23-year-old New Jersey man who is also a U.S. citizen is being charged by federal prosecutors for trying to allegedly provide material support to al Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to a Dec. 29 statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

The statement, which confirms that USAO is working in conjunction with the FBI and Matthew G. Olson, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of National Security, said that the accused, Karrem Nasr, had been motivated by Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. 

The FBI determined that Nasr moved from New Jersey to Egypt in July 2023, and four months later in November, he started expressing an intent to join al Shabaab to wage violent jihad against the United States and its allies.

The release said Nasr made some of these disclosures to a confidential FBI source who posed as a terrorist organizer. 

According to the undercover FBI source, Nasr had considered joining a jihadist movement for a while, but he said he finally got pushed to take a substantial step after Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists murdered an estimated 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others captive in southern Israel.

“In communications exchanged with the CS and postings online, NASR stated that he had been thinking about engaging in jihad for a long time, and he was particularly motivated to become a jihadi by the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel,” the statement reads. “For example, in communications with the CS, NASR stated that the number one enemy was “evil America,” which he called the “head of the snake.”  In recent public social media posts, NASR warned that “Jihad” was “coming soon to a U.S. location near you,” posting airplane, bomb, and fire emojis.

The statement also says that in further communications, the New Jersey man expressed interest and his intention to join the terrorist organization to receive military training so he could “engage in jihad, that he was prepared to kill and be killed, and that he specifically aspired to be a martyr for the jihadist cause.” 

In a series of online posts, which were revealed in the felony complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, Nasr warned that “Jihad” would be “coming soon to a U.S. location near you," and added emojis of an airplane, a bomb and a fire. 

Nasr took a substantial step to join the organization when he flew from Egypt to Kenya about 10 days before Christmas on Dec. 14.

He reportedly planned to connect with al Shabaab members and travel with them to Somalia for training, but his plans were thwarted when Kenyan officials took him into custody that day.

Al Shabaab has been a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) on the State Department's list since 2008. The organization has carried out terrorist attacks across Somalia, Kenya and Uganda in hopes of creating an Islamic state in Somalia.

The release accuses Nasr of “attempting to provide material support” to the organization.

Nasr's arrest comes as the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies have warned about an increasing threat environment as a result of the Hamas attack on Israel.