FBI Director Chris Wray has warned Congress that the US could face threats from terrorists inspired by Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Wray said that while Hamas is assessed to have no capabilities inside the US, other actors – possible radicalized individuals or small groups – could take inspiration from the terror group in a way similar to ISIS.
Speaking to the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, he said: “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.”
The main concern is so-called lone wolf attacks in the US, according to Wray.
He said: “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.”
In written remarks to Congress, he added: “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.”
In addition to terrorist attacks, Wray said that Hamas and Hezbollah could launch cyber attacks while ISIS and al-Qaeda have also called for attacks on the US.
He warned that the threat was greatest to Jewish Americans but also to Muslim communities who could be targeted as a reaction to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Intelligence assessed that “lone offenders inspired by, or reacting to, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict pose the most likely threat to Americans, especially Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities in the United States,” according to Wray.
He revealed that the FBI arrested a man in Huston last week who has been accused of researching how to build a bomb and supporting the killing of Jews online.
The conflict which broke out between Israel and Hamas after the later launched a brutal terrorist attack on October 7 has sent tensions soaring around the globe.
Israel says 1,400 people – the vast majority civilians – were killed in the October 7 attacks while at least 239 Israelis were taken as hostages to Gaza.
The UN said Tuesday that at least 8,200 people had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war while the humanitarian situation in the strip was worsening.