FBI Director: Lone actors could target Passover gatherings in the US

FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday that his organization remains particularly concerned that lone actors could target large gatherings, high-profile events or symbolic targets ahead of the beginning of the holiday of Passover next week, Haaretz reported.

"This is not a time for panic," Wray told a briefing organized by the Secure Community Network, "but it is a time for continued vigilance."

"Even before October 7 the threat to Jewish Americans had already elevated," he added. "In the six months since then, we've seen those threats elevated," he continued, adding the FBI opened three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations between October and January than in the four months before October 7.

Wray noted there has been a marked increase in hoaxes — including fake bomb and active shooter threats — but insisted that hoaxes disrupt activities while intimidating and terrorizing individuals and communities alike.

He repeated what he has told US lawmakers over the course of the past six months — that foreign terror organizations have increased calls for attacks against the US and its allies, highlighting Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) and affiliate organizations in addition to Hamas and Hezbollah. READ MORE