Hamas reportedly seeks to carry out terror attacks against Jews and Israelis worldwide

The Hamas terrorist organization reportedly seeks to attack Jews and Israelis worldwide.

On Tuesday, a senior Israeli official warned that Hamas’ ambition to carry out international terrorist attacks is driven by its severe weakness and inability to target Jews in Israel. After more than 15 months of war in Gaza, Hamas has lost most of its senior leaders, thousands of fighters and most of its military capabilities.

Israel is concerned that Hamas may escalate its efforts to target soft locations, including Jewish communities, Israeli institutions and Israelis living abroad.

In December 2023, Israel warned leaders of 20 European countries that Hamas was planning local terrorist attacks against various targets. 

“Weeks have passed since the barbarism that Hamas committed against infants, children, the elderly, and thousands of Israeli citizens. This is not the time for ambiguity. I want to clarify this unequivocally. Hamas has proven that their goal is to kill Jews everywhere,” Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli wrote to various European leaders.

Several Hamas operatives have been arrested in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. 

In May 2024, the German paper Welt am Sonntag reported that a Hamas cell planned to attack the Israeli Embassy in Berlin and a U.S. military base in Germany. 

Israeli intelligence is also concerned about the establishment of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives in Syria, who are reportedly taking advantage of the turmoil following the collapse of the Assad regime in December.

While most of the free world is concerned about other jihadist groups in Syria, there are reportedly some 2,000 Hamas and 7,000 PIJ terrorists operating in the war-torn country. 

Following the fall of the Assad regime last month, the Israel Defense Forces quickly seized a strategically important buffer zone between Israel and Syria. The purpose of the military operation was to prevent anti-Israel terrorists from attacking Israeli border communities.

Hamas previously launched attacks against northern Israel from Lebanon and some believe it is possible the terror group would attempt to attack Israel from Syrian territory if given the opportunity.

The Iranian ayatollah regime openly calls for Israel's destruction and backs Hamas, Hezbollah and its other terror proxies in the region. With Hamas largely defeated in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon severely weakened, Tehran may be attempting to launch additional fronts against the Jewish state. 

Israeli intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned that Iran and Hamas seek to escalate anti-Israel terrorism in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). The Iranian regime plays a central role in financing, arming and encouraging these terrorist efforts against Israel.

In addition, Hamas simultaneously seeks to undermine its political rival Fatah, which currently controls the Palestinian Authority out of Ramallah, north of Jerusalem. 

Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, recently revealed in a report that it has prevented over 1,000 major terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in 2024. Despite Iran's efforts to escalate attacks against Israelis, there has been a significant decline in the number of incidents. Israeli intelligence reported a dramatic reduction in terrorist attacks, with 254 recorded in 2024 compared to 847 in 2023.

The drop in attacks is mostly attributed to optimized intelligence gathering and upgraded cooperation between Israel’s various security agencies to identify and foil attacks in real-time.