FBI warns Hamas attack will pose biggest terror threat to US since Islamic State

Hamas attack on Israel will pose biggest terrorist threat to US since the rise of the Islamic State almost a decade ago said FBI Director Christopher Wray during a congressional hearing Tuesday.

Wray detailed that since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza began earlier this month, several foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West, increasing the threat posed by domestic violent extremists in the United States.

“The actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as inspiration the likes of which we have not seen since the Islamic State launched its so-called caliphate several years ago. ” Wray said.

These comments were made during a hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs focused on threats against the United States. The U.S. government has seen an increase in threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab Americans since fighting began in Gaza, officials said.

During the hearing, Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also warned against increased threats against the country’s Jewish and Muslim communities as well as Arab-American citizens, due to the ongoing war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas.

“As the past few weeks have demonstrated, the threat environment facing our department has evolved and has grown steadily in the 20 years since our founding after 9/11 (2001),” Mayorkas said.

The head of National Security, who is participating this Tuesday in a Senate session to discuss financial allocations from the Upper House of the United States, reported that after the Hamas offensive of October 7, the Department recorded “an increase in threats » against these populations.

Likewise, Mayorkas warned that “hatred directed at Jewish students, communities and institutions adds to a pre-existing rise in the level of anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world », According to information collected by CNN.

For his part, Wray agrees with this theory and reports that the FBI has recorded in recent weeks a significant intensification of threats emanating from individuals or small extremist groups, perhaps “inspired by events in the Middle East “.

Along the same lines, Wray pointed out that events in the Middle East not only motivate individuals and groups within U.S. borders, but foreign powers, like Iran, have also taken advantage of the situation for “calls for attacks against Americans and the West “.

“The cyberattacks against critical U.S. interests and infrastructure that we are already seeing, carried out by both Iran and non-state actors, likely to get worse if the conflict spreads “, warned the director of the FBI.

The number of attacks on U.S. military bases overseas by Iranian-backed militias has increased this month, Wray said. Cyberattacks on the United States by Iran and non-state actors likely to worsen if conflict expands he claimed.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters said.

The White House expressed concern this week following reports of anti-Jewish incidents at American universities. as tensions led university officials to step up security.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, questioned Mayorkas about why a U.S. asylum official who allegedly posted anti-Israel messages on social media was placed on leave but not fired, saying that the employee was “celebrate the genocide “.

Mayorkas said it was “negligible ” suggesting that the posts reflected the views of employees of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and noted that his own mother was a Holocaust survivor.

During a summit on ransomware hosted at the White House on Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he had ordered the Justice Department to help Israeli investigators probe financial flows to Hamas, including those involving cryptocurrencies.