NEW YORK — The NYPD and federal authorities have arrested a man who planned to firebomb the home of activist Nerdeen Kiswani, who heads of one of the city’s more extreme pro-Palestinian protest groups, the Daily News has learned.

Alexander Heifler, 25, was arrested late Thursday after an NYPD undercover cop who learned of the plot, befriended him and helped him build eight Molotov cocktails that he planned to hurl at Kiswani’s home, according to police and court documents.

Heifler was charged with ferdeal counts of unlawful possession of a destructive devices and unlawful making of destructive devices, officials said. Each charge carries a penalty of 10 years in prison. He was arraigned in Newark Federal court on Friday.

Kiswani, 31, is the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, an explicitly anti-Zionist group that’s led many of the city’s highest-profile demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza. She’s of Palestinian descent, born in Jordan, and immigrated to Brooklyn as a child with her parents, who are Palestinian refugees. As an organizer, she frequently takes hardline positions and has championed the right to resist by any and all means.

Kiswani has been a lightning rod for political controversy, even against Mayor Zhoran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor. She and then-Assemblyman Mamdani were pictured together at a 2021 pro-Palestinian rally, which was re-surfaced during last year’s mayoral election in an anti-Mamdani campaign ad, Since then, though, Kiswani has become a frequent critic of Mamdani.

Kiswani was informed about the plot against her life and the arrest last night, she said on X.

“(They) informed me that a plot against my life was ‘about to’ take place, and that agents had conducted an operation in Hoboken related to this plot,” she wrote, adding that, recently, pro-Israel organizations “have encouraged violence against my family and me.”

Those organizations included Betar U.S., which she filed a civil lawsuit against last month, claiming the group was using social media to put “bounties” on her head.

“I will have more to say as additional details come to light,” she said. “I will not stop speaking up for the people of Palestine.”

Heifler is Jewish, police sources said. He planed to flee to Israel after he firebombed Kiswani’s house.

“He’s an extremist,” an NYPD official said about Heifler.

The undercover cop, a member of the NYPD’s Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism or REMI Unit, came across Heifler on February 10 when the suspect participated in a group video call where he asked if anyone had space where he could practice throwing Molotov cocktails.

The undercover cop quickly reached out to Heifler, who told the cop that he had Kiswani’s address and wanted to firebomb her home.

“Drive down in the middle of April,” he told the undercover cop as he outlined his plan, according to court documents, “No IDs, no phones, In and out.”

Heifler had a meticulous plan about how exactly he wanted to bomb Kiswani’s home, an NYPD spokesman said.

“Alexander reveals to the undercover that he’s actually doing recon work has surveilled Kiswani’s residence, and the plan that he suggests is essentially surrounding her residence with Molotov cocktails and then putting two cocktails outside cars outside the residence,” the spokesman said about the plan.

Over the next few weeks, Heifler did some thorough research on Molotov cocktails and conducted dry runs as he drove past Kiswani’s home. He even told the undercover cop that he had done DNA tests on Molotov cocktails he had built to see if it could pick up any of his genetic material.

When he learned that traces of DNA could be found on the test bombs, he told the undercover cop that they would need to wear gloves.

“What he also recommends doing is getting 12 separate bottles, taking bottles from different recycle areas so there is different DNA on them,” the spokesman said.

The two agreed to meet up at Heifler’s home in Hoboken, NJ to make the Molotov cocktails on Thursday night, according to court documents.

Heifler and the undercover cop had made eight of the 12 Molotov cocktails before federal investigators raided the place and took him into custody, an NYPD spokesman said, saying the operation and investigation had “a PD-central role in thwarting this attack.”

“This NYPD investigation uncovered an alleged plot by Alexander Heifler to carry out a violent attack against Nerdeen Kiswani,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Friday. “Our undercover officer identified and tracked the threat — first online and then in person — allowing us to disrupt the planned attack, take Heifler into custody, and ensure that no one was harmed.

“This is exactly how our intelligence and counterterrorism operation is designed to work — a sophisticated apparatus built to detect danger early and prevent violence before it reaches our streets.” she added.

Within Our Lifetime got its start in 2015 as a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter across CUNY, before it splintered off from the national organization in 2018. More recently, WOL is best known for organizing recent protests on the anniversary of Oct. 7, at the Nova exhbit, and that shut down Grand Central.

In addition to Kiswani’s criticism of Mamdani, WOL also organized a 2024 protest against other progressives: Bernie Sanders, AOC and Jamaal Bowman.

While at CUNY Law, Kiswani was elected student speaker at her 2022 graduation and faced backlash for her commencement speech on the Palestinian cause.

On Friday, Betar U.S. at first called the assassination plot against Kiswani “not surprising,” then followed up in a second social media post that they “know nothing about this threat” and have not been in contact with law enforcement.

Gov. Kathy Hochul hailed the quick arrest, noting “No one should be targeted or live in fear of violence for expressing their beliefs.”

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