New York City is on high alert as authorities have received intelligence chatter about an elevated risk of a potential terrorist attack directly linked to the war in Gaza.
Governor Kathy Hochul said she has taken action to bolster security measures and reinforce the staffing of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in response to a fresh threat assessment provided by the New York State Intelligence Center. This assessment highlights growing concerns that the violence in Gaza is generating discussions among extremist groups regarding potential targets within New York.
The governor detailed her plans to address online threats and radicalization, coinciding with CBS News obtaining another threat assessment that underscores “an increasing terror threat to New York State.”
According to the intelligence center, the surge in antisemitic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric on social media platforms is contributing to a rise in hate crimes targeting Jews, Muslims, and Arabs.
“The expansion of Israeli operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the increase in civilian casualties raises the likelihood that violent extremist threat actors will seek to conduct attacks against targets in the West, with New York State being a focus. Terrorist messaging has placed focus on attacking ‘soft targets’ such as protests, group gatherings, and other public events,” the report warned.
Last week, Governor Hochul allocated $2.5 million to augment the State Police’s investigative capacity within the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force across New York City, Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester.
“We are working with all law enforcement, federal, state, and local, statewide. These are not just New York City events,” Hochul emphasized.
FBI Director Christopher Wray previously voiced his own concerns in testimony to Congress, saying, “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. That includes not just homegrown violent extremists, inspired by a foreign terrorist organization, but also domestic violent extremists targeting Jewish or Muslim communities. We’ve already seen that with the individual we arrested last week in Houston.”
The situation has become increasingly worrisome as the number of bias incidents investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force surged by 124% in October, with anti-Jewish incidents showing a staggering 214% increase.
Source: (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)