The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas could exploit the war with Israel to carry out terrorist attacks on American soil, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Cristopher Wray told the US House of Representatives late on Wednesday night.
"Since October 7th, we've seen a rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies," said Wray. "Hezbollah expressed its support and praise for Hamas and threatened to attack US interests in the Middle East. Al-Qaida issued its most specific call to attack the United States in the last five years. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula called on jihadists to attack Americans and Jewish people everywhere. ISIS urged its followers to target Jewish communities in the United States and Europe."
"Given those calls for action, our most immediate concern is that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home. That includes homegrown violent extremists inspired by a foreign terrorist organization and domestic violent extremists targeting Jewish Americans or other faith communities, like Muslim Americans," added the FBI director.
"We cannot - and do not - discount the possibility that Hamas or another foreign terrorist organization may exploit the current conflict to conduct attacks here, on our own soil," Wray told the House Committee on Homeland Security.
"We’ve kept our sights on Hamas and have multiple investigations into individuals affiliated with that foreign terrorist organization. And while, historically, our Hamas cases have identified individuals located here who are facilitating and financing terrorism overseas," the FBI head added, "we continue to scrutinize our intelligence to assess how the threat may be evolving."
FBI monitoring Iranian threat as well
Wray noted as well that the threat to the US isn't just coming from Hamas, pointing to the threat posed by Iran and Hezbollah.
"As the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, the Iranians have directly, or by hiring criminals, mounted assassination attempts against dissidents and high-ranking current and former US officials, including right here on American soil," said Wray. "While we’re not currently tracking a specific plot, given that disturbing history, we’re keeping a close eye on what impact recent events may have on those terrorist groups’ intentions here in the United States, and how those intentions might evolve. "
The FBI director stressed that while heightened vigilance is required "it is by no means a time to panic."