(TJV NEWS) Two pro-Hamas radicals were filmed being dragged and beaten by security guards inside the Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations in New York City, according to footage published Saturday by NBC News.

The individuals were identified as 22-year-old Yasin ElSammak and his 15-year-old brother Ali. Their parents confirmed the details to NBC, saying the pair were attacked in front of cameras before being taken into custody by New York police.

According to NBC News, both brothers were charged with assaulting two members of the Egyptian mission’s staff—believed to be the same guards who confronted them. Charges against the younger brother Ali were later dropped, and Yasin’s charges were reduced after a family court hearing. Their father, Akram, an Egyptian immigrant who has lived in the United States for decades, said Yasin suffered a neck injury and struggled to breathe after the beating. “Our sons were kidnapped and beaten on American soil, and then the officers of the United States of America came to arrest my sons,” he told NBC.

The incident occurred Wednesday amid ongoing demonstrations outside Egyptian embassies around the world over Cairo’s alleged role in the crisis in Gaza. Protesters have been demanding that Egypt open the Rafah crossing. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government has pushed back strongly against accusations of responsibility, Reuters has reported.

NBC also noted that the confrontation came shortly after Arab media circulated an unverified recording in which Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty allegedly told Egypt’s ambassador in The Hague to “grab” and “drag” protesters into their buildings and then call the police.

In New York, NBC reported, the radicals attempted to chain the mission’s doors. A third participant, Husam Khaled, who was not arrested, admitted he locked the doors before fleeing, later returning to witness the ElSammak brothers being subdued. Khaled claimed he brought Yasin to film his protest actions, and Yasin in turn brought his younger brother.

Khaled’s footage, cited by NBC, shows the guards pulling the brothers inside and striking them. In the background, a bystander can be heard yelling, “They’re bringing the kids inside the building.” Khaled further alleged Yasin was struck in the neck with a chain.

The ElSammak brothers’ parents, Akram and Olga—immigrants from Egypt and Russia—emphasized to NBC that both of their sons are U.S. citizens. Akram said their activism was rooted in calling for basic humanitarian aid: “They say, ‘Let the children eat and have some medicine and have some water.’”

Meanwhile, the New York activist group Within Our Lifetime, which describes itself as Palestinian-led, condemned what it called “the extension of Egypt’s campaign of repression beyond its own borders and onto U.S. soil,” in remarks reported by NBC News.