Feds charge NY woman who allegedly said she wished ‘every day were October 7th’ with supporting terrorism

JTA – A New York woman was arrested and charged with attempting to provide financial support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a US-designated foreign terrorist group, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday. 

Catherine Beth Washburn, 37, of Irondequoit, New York, allegedly sent more than $30 000 (R489 600) in cryptocurrency across 80 transactions to an individual who identified as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighter in Gaza and claimed to have engaged in attacks against Israel, according to the Justice Department. 

She was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources, namely currency, to a designated foreign terrorist organisation, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250 000 (R4 million) fine. 

“As alleged in the complaint, this defendant, fuelled by her self-described hate of Israel and Jewish people, went to great lengths to attempt to provide financial support to terrorist organisations that use violence to further their agendas, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” Michael DiGiacomo, the US Attorney for the Western District of New York, said in a statement. 

Despite Washburn’s alleged attempts to “support violent extremism”, he added, she was “stopped”. 

In February and March 2026, the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained alleged communications between Washburn and the Islamic Jihad fighter in which she told him that she wished “every day were October 7th”. 

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is an Iran-backed Palestinian terror group that attacked Israel alongside Hamas on 7 October, during which its fighters abducted and killed Israeli citizens, including Dror Or, who was killed in Kibbutz Be’eri; Oded Lifshitz, who was killed in captivity; and Gadi Mozes and Arbel Yehud, who were abducted by the group and released in January 2025. 

“[I]f I lived in Gaza, I would fight alongside the resistance,” Washburn allegedly wrote, adding that she hated Jews “very much” and that she wished Israel “would disappear”. 

In one message, Washburn allegedly stated, “I feel excited every time I see news of the killing of an occupation soldier.” 

Attempts by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to reach Washburn for comment were unsuccessful. 

According to the criminal complaint, Washburn is a leader of the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, an extremist antizionist group. The group, which operates in the United States and abroad, was launched last year and engages in “direct action” to “protest, attack, destroy, sabotage, and shut down Zionist and US infrastructures and business and all its affiliates”, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 

In August 2025, an affiliate of the group, Jermaiah Yusuf Sawaqed, 25, of Everett, Massachusetts, was charged with vandalising the Massachusetts State House with paint. 

Washburn made an initial appearance on Tuesday afternoon before US Magistrate Judge Mark W Pedersen and was detained.