In the wake of the largest terrorist attack in Israel in decades, the FBI is warning Americans to be on the lookout. During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray voiced concerns that the recent attack by Hamas, which left 1,400 dead, including women and children, could lead to a significant terror threat to the United States
Wray noted that since the beginning of conflict between Israeli and Palestinian in Gaza earlier this month, “multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West, raising the threat posed by homegrown U.S. violent extremists,” Reuters noted.
The remarks came during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that revolved around threats to the United States. The U.S. government has seen an increase in threats against Jews, Muslims and Arab Americans since fighting broke out.
“We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration, the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate several years ago. In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West,” Wray told the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee during a hearing on worldwide threats, writes CBS News.
“The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole ‘nother level,” Wray said.
Wray said of the threat landscape in the U.S., “It is a time to be concerned. We are in a dangerous period.” He said Americans should not alter their lives, but should be watchful.
“This is not a time for panic,” he said. “But it is a time for vigilance.”
“Here in the United States, our most immediate concern is that violent extremists — individuals or small groups — will draw inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks against Americans going about their daily lives,” he warned again during his Congressional testimony. In written remarks submitted to Congress, the FBI director clarified, “we have no information to indicate that Hamas has the intent or capability to conduct operations inside the US, though we cannot, and do not, discount that possibility.”
Earlier in the year, reports showed that Biden’s disastrous policies on the southern border were serving as a highway for terrorists to enter the United States.
In March, The New York Post noted that “nearly 70 non-US citizens on the FBI’s terror watch list have been caught trying to illegally cross the country’s southern border since October — a disturbing trend that appears set to easily beat last year’s alarming figure.
There were 16 such people listed in the Terrorist Screening Database who were encountered attempting to illegally enter the US from Mexico last month alone, according to new data released by Customs and Border Protection.
The total number of the illegals who were on the terror watch list and stopped at the southern border since Oct. 1, the start of the CBP’s fiscal year 2023, is now at 69, authorities said.
Compare that figure to the same one for all of the agency’s last fiscal year — or 98 non-US citizens on the watch list who were halted — and it appears there will easily be even more caught this fiscal year.”
The potential terrorists caught last month were among 128,877 total illegal immigrants stopped at the southern border. Those who were caught but escaped authorities are not included in the numbers.”
Over the past month, violence has grown all over the country as protests have spiraled into violence.
Black Israelites/ Hebrews fight Pro-Hamas protesters in Chicago pic.twitter.com/TllvNxgwfI
— Angela Van Der Pluym (@anjewla90) October 29, 2023
A few days after the initial attack against Israel, Hamas announced a “global day of Jihad,” which led American officials to take the largest defensive stature since September 11, 2001.
