A law enforcement vehicle is parked at a school in the area where a man believed to have taken people hostage at a synagogue during services that were being streamed live, in Colleyville, Texas, U.S. January 15, 2022. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber

Federal authorities on Sunday named the gunman who took four people hostage in a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, as investigators expand their probe to London and Tel Aviv.

“At this time, there is no indication that other individuals are involved,” FBI Dallas special agent in charge Matthew DeSarno said in a statement.

The four hostages, including Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, were held by Akram for more than ten hours at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue before being freed by the FBI’s hostage rescue team on Saturday night. Akram was killed.

The FBI will continue processing evidence at the synagogue, while its North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force will follow investigative leads, DeSarno said. Investigators in London and Tel Aviv have also been mobilized as the FBI broadens its probe into the gunman, he revealed Saturday.

Karen Pierce, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the US, stated on Sunday that “British authorities — in the UK & US — are providing our full support to Texas and US law enforcement agencies.”

“The UK and US stand shoulder to shoulder in defiance of terrorism and in defense of the fundamental rights and freedoms of our citizens,” she added.

Akram disrupted the livestreamed Shabbat religious service at Congregation Beth Israel on Saturday morning and demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year US prison sentence after being convicted in 2010 of shooting at US soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, emphasized on Saturday that Siddiqui had been “open and explicit in her antisemitism,” and noted that “Islamic terrorist groups, including ISIS, have attempted to exchange hostages for her release.”

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett thanked the US law enforcement agencies for their “swift response and courageous action” that ensured the hostages’ safe release.

“This event is a stark reminder that the dark forces of antisemitism still exist. We must and we will fight it,” Bennett said. “To the Jewish community in the US, and Diaspora Jewry around the world I say: You are not alone. We are one family and we stand strong and united together.”

The ADL on Sunday urged Congress to double funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides nonprofit organizations, including Jewish schools and houses of worship, with financial support to bolster security. In 2021, the program accepted only 1,532 grant applications out of the 3,361 submitted, and allocated less than half of the total funds requested by applicants, according to the ADL.

“With threats against synagogues and other Jewish institutions arguably at an all-time high, it is imperative that the federal government provides appropriate levels of funding to mitigate the threat,” said Greenblatt. “As we saw in Texas, it is urgently critical for Congress to increase funding to protect these non-profit organizations from future acts of terrorism or hate-motivated violence.”

The group also urged the Senate to immediately confirm Dr. Deborah Lipstadt as the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.