The FBI warned that the terrorist threat in the United States is at a level not seen in many years

Terrorist threats against the United States have reached an “entirely different level” than the situation that had already worsened before Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and its response.FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday.

“We’ve seen a veritable gallery of foreign terrorist organizations calling for terrorist attacks against us that we haven’t seen in a long, long time,” the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in an annual presentation to the House Intelligence Committee. The US On the biggest “global threats” facing.

Wray, speaking with other senior US intelligence officials, said the FBI was also concerned about the threat Violent attacks by artists alone Inspired by calls for violence from the Middle East.

“This is not the time to panicBut for more vigilance given the risk,” Wray warned.

In November 2023, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, said they had “multiple investigations” open against individuals associated with Hamas, but also said the terrorist group lacked the capacity to act. In the United States.

In a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Ray noted how since the October 7 attacks in Israel, the FBI has been particularly alert to the threat posed by Hamas within the United States.

The presence of Hamas-affiliated individuals in the United States has generally been decried Finances the operations of Palestinian terrorist groups abroadHe detailed.

“In a year when the terrorist threat was already high, the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of attacks against Americans in the United States to a whole new level,” he said.

However, the FBI director left in his written testimony that “for the moment” his organization “There is no information indicating that Hamas has the intention or capability to conduct operations inside the United States.”.

“However we cannot rule out that possibility. “We don’t even do that,” he said.

In any case, he was “particularly concerned” about the possibility Hamas sympathizers may commit violent acts “in the name of the group.”.

“Our most immediate concern is that individuals or small groups will be motivated by events in the Middle East to carry out house-to-house attacks here. “It includes domestic violent extremists inspired by foreign terrorist organizations,” he explained.

The October 7 Hamas attacks were the deadliest in Israel’s history and sparked a war between Israel and the group, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel’s response in Gaza has caused more than 30,000 deaths. President Joe Biden has backed Israel, though he has increasingly warned that its response has been “over the top.”

According to a written report by the intelligence community, Hamas’s armed resistance to Israel is likely to continue for years, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise to destroy the group during his current campaign in Gaza. “The Gaza conflict is likely to have a generational impact on terrorism,” the report predicted.

Similarly, the report maintains that US intelligence agencies estimate that “Iranian leaders neither orchestrated nor had prior knowledge of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.”

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