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Global Terror Threat Has Skyrocketed Due to Oct. 7 Hamas Attack, Gaza War, Experts Warn
A man runs on a road as fire burns after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The threat of terrorist attacks in the West has escalated in the wake of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and amid the ensuing war in Gaza, according to experts who spoke with The Algemeiner.
The brutal success of Hamas’ invasion of the Jewish state last fall, coupled with images emerging from Israel’s military operations against the terror group in Gaza, has sparked a new wave of radicalization, experts argued. Of chief concern has been the emergence of a new wave of so-called “lone wolf” terrorists who gained inspiration from Islamist extremist groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS) and have become further galvanized by the current conflict in the Middle East.
“The FBI and others have reported a sharp uptick in terrorist activity, including active recruitment and self-radicalization, since the Oct. 7 attacks and the Israeli response,” said Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“This applies across a wide ideological divide and geographic space,” Levitt added. “It includes both organized activities by established groups and lone actors who may be inspired by the sharp rise in terrorist propaganda produced against the backdrop of these events.”
Senior US officials have similarly been warning about a heightened threat of terrorism since Oct. 7, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped over 250 others as hostages.
“As I look back over my career in law enforcement, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a time when I’ve seen so many different threats, all elevated, all at the same time,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told NBC News in an interview last month.
Earlier in April, Wray told US lawmakers in congressional testimony that he believed small groups or individuals “will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home.” He noted that concerns were rising before Hamas’ attack, but “we’ve seen the threat from foreign terrorists rise to a whole other level after Oct. 7.”
Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of US Northern Command, shared Wray’s sentiment while testifying before Congress in March. Terrorist groups are using Israel’s war against Hamas to encourage more attacks against the US, Guillot argued. However, he added, terrorism has become more dispersed and informal, making it more difficult to combat.
“The increasingly diffuse nature of the transnational terrorist threat challenges our law enforcement partners’ ability to detect and disrupt attacks plotting against the homeland and leaves us vulnerable to surprise,” Guillot said.
Days earlier, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that al Qaeda and ISIS have been inspired by Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza, to attack Americans and Israelis.
“While it is too early to tell, both al Qaeda and ISIS, inspired by Hamas, have directed supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and US interests,” Haines testified to the US Senate Intelligence Committee. “And we have seen how it is inspiring individuals to conduct acts of antisemitism and Islamophobic terror worldwide.”
She added that the Gaza war “will have a generational impact on terrorism.”
The US and its allies have spent years eroding the capabilities and networks of terrorist groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS. Intelligence services have also improved their methods for identifying and thwarting terror plots. As a result, experts believe that smaller-scale groups such as ISIS-K and radicalized individuals present the chief threats to the US homeland. Experts also noted the threat posed by Iran, which the US government has consistently deemed the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.
“The ongoing and primary terrorist threat is from the Iranian regime and its proxies,” said Marshall Wittman, a spokesperson for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). “That is why it is critical that America stand with its ally, Israel, which is on the front lines in this struggle against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian aggression. American national security interests are aligned with Israel’s battle against Iranian-sponsored terrorism which threatens regional stability in the Middle East.”
Iran is the chief international sponsor of Hamas, providing the terror group with arms, funding, and training.
In addition to spurring a heightened threat of terrorism, the Oct. 7 massacre has also led to a global surge in antisemitism, making the Jewish community a likely target of potential terror plots.
The Anti-Defamation League released a report last month showing antisemitic incidents in the US rose 140 percent last year, reaching a record high. Most of the outrages occurred after Oct. 7, during the ensuing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, antisemitic incidents have also skyrocketed to record highs in several other countries around the world, especially in Europe, since the Hamas atrocities.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has said that Oct. 7 unleashed a “tsunami of hate” against Jewish people.
Much of the antisemitism has manifested in the form of violent threats and attacks against Jewish individuals. In late October, for example, authorities arrested a Cornell University student for threatening to “stab” and “slit the throat” of his Jewish classmates. That same month, the FBI foiled a plot to bomb a Jewish gathering in Houston, Texas.
Corey Walker is a journalist based in Washington, DC.
The post Global Terror Threat Has Skyrocketed Due to Oct. 7 Hamas Attack, Gaza War, Experts Warn first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.