Just over a week into the war between Israel and Hamas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has noticed an increase in threatening rhetoric targeting both the Jewish and Muslim communities in the US. On Sunday, Director Chris Wray said the FBI has seen an increase in reported threats in the country.
“Here in the US, we cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil,” Wray said on a call with reporters, according to CNN. He said that the FBI is moving quickly to mitigate the threats and that it does not discount the possibility that Hamas and other groups could exploit the conflict in the Middle East to call for or plot attacks in the United States.
US security agencies last week issued a public service announcement and a bulletin to law enforcement agencies around the US warning of possible threats related to the war abroad. The majority of the threats that the FBI has responded to were not judged to be credible, according to US media reports. However, the FBI is taking them all seriously.
A senior FBI official was quoted as saying by AP that agents have been encouraged to be “aggressive” and proactive in communicating over the last week with faith-based leaders. The US official said the purpose of that outreach is not to make anyone feel targeted but rather to ask clerics and others to report to law enforcement anything that seems suspicious.
Besides responding to threats, Wray stressed the FBI was also working through its legal attache office in Tel Aviv to see what it could do to locate and identify Americans who remain unaccounted for after last weekend’s attacks. On Sunday, the US State Department said the number of Americans killed since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas has risen to 30.
The US is also aware of 13 missing citizens and has been in contact with their families. Hamas is believed to have kidnapped at least 155 people and is holding them hostage in Gaza. Their whereabouts are not publicly known, but their families have been urgently pressing for their release.
(With agency inputs)