Western intelligence thwarted at least 10 jihadist attacks across Europe last year and the current fighting between Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas has raised the threat of further attacks, Dutch intelligence agency AIVD said.
The foiled episodes included a plan to stab people at unexpected and preparations for an assault on specific facilities and events, the AIVD stated in its annual report, without elaborating.
“There were two mobilising issues: the destruction of Korans in the Netherlands and other European countries and the conflict between Israel and Hamas,”
the Dutch agency stated.
Sweden increased its terror alert in August to the second-highest level, after Koran burnings and other facades in the country targeting the holy book of Islam angered Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.
In October, two Swedish football fans were hit dead in Brussels, allegedly by a man who recognised himself as a member of the Islamic State jihadist group. Also in October, a 20-year-old man fatally gored a teacher and gravely wounded two other people in an episode at a school in the northern French city of Arras, in what President Emmanuel Macron denounced as “barbaric terrorism”.
Israel and Hamas have been at battle in Gaza since gunmen from the Palestinian militant company that runs the enclave attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and arresting 253 hostages, by Israeli tallies. Israel reacted with a military campaign in which more than 34,000 Palestinians have been extinguished, according to medical officials in the enclave, with thousands more feared concealed under the rubble.
The AIVD did not express how many of the foiled jihadist attacks had happened since Oct. 7.
The Dutch anti-terrorism agency in December increased its threat level for the first time since 2019 to 4, or “substantial”, on its five-step scale, mentioning the war in Gaza.
However, the ongoing conflict in Israel, Quran desecrations in Europe, and advanced threats from jihadism, along with recent attacks in nearby nations, have made the Netherlands counterterrorism agency raise its security level. The Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security has upgraded the threat alert for the Netherlands to its second-highest level, citing a substantial threat of a potential attack in the country. This marks the first time the threat level has been increased to such an extent since the conclusion of 2019.
