MI5 chief warns of threat of attacks in the UK from lone wolf Hamas supporters

The director general of Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 has warned of the threat of a domestic terrorist attack as a result of the Hamas war on Israel.

Ken McCallum pointed to Jewish communities and organisations with links to Israel, suggesting they may face a heightened danger from lone actors in the UK with sympathies for Hamas and Iran.
 
Addressing concerns that the conflict will spill over onto British streets, the MI5 chief warned: “There clearly is the possibility that profound events in the Middle East will either generate more volume of UK threat and/or changes shape in terms of what is being targeted.”

Pointed to specific threats to the community in the UK he added:“Sadly, in the particular case of Jewish or Israeli individuals or entities, they face risk potentially from those of an Islamist extremist mindset and those of an extreme Right-wing, anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi-type mindset. We see both those forms of terrorism in the UK.”

McCallum said the UK was working with Israel “to establish the facts as quickly as possible” that led to the October 7th atrocities committed their by Hamas and that MI5 “can play a role” in the search for hostages. 

Speaking at a an unprecedented security summit also attended by intelligence chiefs from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, he also spoke of long held concerns about Iran.

McCallum also warned: “We have obviously been concerned about Iran’s behaviour in the UK for a long time. In particular, the last 18 months or so have been a particularly intensive phase of Iran-generated threat on UK soil.

“Plainly, events in the Middle East sharpen the possibility that Iran might decide to move into new directions. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that could include the UK, but we are already operating at a high level of Iran-generated threat.

“For the most part, the activity we’ve seen backed by Iran in the UK for the last 18 months or so has been targeted at the regime’s own internal enemies, dissidents, Farsi media organisations. ”