FBI, NYPD disrupt assassination plot targeting pro-Palestinian activist in New Jersey

HOBOKEN, N.J. — The New York Police Department and the FBI disrupted an alleged plot to kill a pro-Palestinian activist in New Jersey, according to the woman targeted, law enforcement officials and a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Newark.

At least one arrest was made when law enforcement executed a search warrant at Willow Avenue and Clinton Street in Hoboken.

Authorities arrested Alexander Heifler Thursday night on charges of unlawfully possessing and unlawfully making firearms and accused him of plotting to “go after” the activist, Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder of Within Our Lifetime, an organizer of many of the pro-Palestinian protests in New York City.

Kiswani is not identified by name in the criminal complaint but she posted on social media the FBI informed her she was the alleged target.

In the statement she vowed she would not stop speaking up for Palestinian people:

An NYPD undercover officer broke the case open after the department identified Heifler online, infiltrated a group chat, developed a relationship and thwarted the plot.

The undercover officer personally witnessed Heifler making the eight Molotov cocktails in Hoboken Thursday which led to his arrest, officials say.

“Heifler also told the (undercover officer) that he had an address where they could hide out after they threw the Molotov cocktails” and discussed a plan to leave the country, the complaint said.

Authorities allege the plan was to throw the Molotov cocktails at Kiswani that night.

Law enforcement believes they stopped an imminent threat and the FBI said there is no threat to public safety.

Hoboken Mayor Emily B. Jabbour released a statement Friday and said there was “no danger to residents and no ongoing threat.”

(ABC News contributed to this report.)