By Steve Neavling
Federal law enforcement officials are warning of the potential for violence as domestic hate crimes continue to rise against Muslims, Arabs and Jews following the Hamas attack on Israel.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning that Israel’s response to the attack will keep the U.S. on a “heightened threat environment in the near-to-medium term.”
“Targeted violence attacks may increase as the conflict progresses,” the agency’s new intelligence assessment warns, ABC News reports.
DHS also sent a memo to law enforcement agencies in Washington, D.C., raising concerns that the “escalations in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas almost certainly will increase the threat of terrorism and targeted violence.”
On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered similar remarks at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida.
“We are also doing everything in our power to harness our investigative and prosecutive resources so that we can be the best partners that we can be to state and local law enforcement,” Garland said.
