Ahead of the Jewish holiday season, the Israeli National Security Council (NSC) published a terrorism threat assessment for Israelis abroad. In the assessment, the Council summarises the various global terrorism trends that threaten against Israelis overseas.
Iran
According to the assessment, Iran is still the central global terror threat and continues its activities to harm Israeli citizens and Jews worldwide, directly and through offshoots and proxies that it directs in various countries, violating their sovereignty.
In addition, the Iranian terror groups continue their attempts to contact Israeli citizens abroad and in Israel, under the guise of business or disguised as other factors, to harm them. In the past year, several attempts to harm Israeli and Jewish targets in the world were uncovered.
Global Jihad
International Jihadist and Islamic extremist organizations continue to work and carry out terror attacks at various sites worldwide. Likewise, the organizations are showing a heightened interest in harming Israeli and Jewish targets and are calling their supporters to harm Jews around the world. The central threat is lone-wolf assailants, who are inspired by the organizations and work to execute attacks against Israelis and Jews.
Today, these organizations concentrate on Africa, Asia, and Europe, along with more sporadic attempts to carry out attacks in additional countries.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
As of late, Hamas and PIJ have shown motivation to carry out attacks in Israel to gain "bargaining chips" against Israel. It is not to be ruled out that these organizations will aspire to kidnap Israelis or Jews outside of Israel. This comes amid Hamas' approach that the negotiations regarding POWs and MIAs have hit a dead end, along with pressure on the organization to advance a solution to the issue. Hamas chairman, Ismail Haniyeh, even openly declared that "Hamas won't shy away from kidnappings" and that "We have four prisoners, and if that's not enough to persuade Israel to make a deal, we will kidnap more using our arms that are in every place."
Far-right
Jewish communities (along with other minorities) are a central target for far-right terror as well, with religious and community institutions being the preferred targets and holidays being an especially sensitive time. In recent years, terror attacks targeted Jewish religious institutions in Europe and America through anti-semitic motivation.
Threat areas
Countries with the highest chance of Iranian terror activity are those that surround Iran (such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Kurdistan), the Mediterranean basin, Africa, and Latin America.
The NSC warns that the Sinai Peninsula is still under threat and suggests that Israelis visiting the region stay only in the recognized tourism sites (the secure beaches and Sharm al-Sheikh) where there are Egyptian security forces and refrain from touring deep Sinai or staying in solitary locations that are unrecognized.
The Council adds that recently, there has been a rise in the potential terror threats in Sweden and Denmark due to Quran burnings. Therefore, Sweden raised its domestic terror threat level to high.
Enemy states
The assessment reminds citizens that it is forbidden by Israeli law for Israelis to enter enemy states (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran), even for dual citizens who use two passports. While staying in these countries, Israeli citizens are exposed to a higher threat of kidnapping and/or death.
In this regard, the paper mentions Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli citizen with a Russian passport, who was in Iraq in violation of Israeli law and was kidnapped by the Shiite militia group Kata'ib Hezbollah.
The NSC called on the Israeli public to continue to travel abroad but to be alert, to act responsibly as per the threat level in the country they are in, and to strictly adhere to the recommendations detailed below. In high-risk countries, Israelis must show greater caution and avoid external indicators of their being Israelis and/or Jews. The NSC recommends that the public monitor the status of the NSC travel warnings. As has been shown in the past year, these warnings are based on and reflect concrete and valid potential threats. The NSCCTD again calls on those planning to travel abroad to check the status of the travel warnings to their intended destinations before purchasing tickets.
