Terrorist attack in UK linked to Gaza

An asylum seeker bent on avenging deaths in Gaza has carried out a suspected terrorist attack in Britain, The Telegraph can disclose.

The public has not been told that the man, who came to the UK in 2020, told police he had done it for “Palestine”.

MPs said on Friday night that the public had a right to know, amid warnings that demonstrations this weekend could encourage so-called lone-wolf terrorist attacks.

The world is on high alert for such attacks after the United States issued a “worldwide caution” to its citizens to be extra vigilant wherever they live.

Meanwhile, the BBC finally bowed to criticism of its refusal to call Hamas terrorists, saying it would no longer refer to them as militants by default and would instead call Hamas a group “proscribed as a terror organisation by the UK Government and others”.

News of the Gaza-linked alleged terror attack in the UK comes after Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said he was concerned that disgruntled individuals might feel they “get permission” from big demonstrations to turn to violence.

He said: “I am worried about the cork coming out of the bottle and some lone individual saying: ‘Right, now it’s time to act.’”

Suspect in custody

The Telegraph has discovered that just such an alleged attack has already taken place.

The details that can be reported are highly restricted for legal reasons, but the suspect – who is now in custody – said after his arrest that he had done it because Israel had killed children in Gaza.

Senior politicians have questioned why such information has not been made public at a time when the police and security services are on high alert for terrorist attacks motivated by the Israel-Gaza war.

A security source said: “They may be downplaying it so that they don’t have repeat attacks or copycat attacks.”

Earlier this week, it emerged that a Tunisian man who shot dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels had arrived in Europe on a boat that landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The incident has led to political debate in Europe over whether porous borders pose a security risk amid instability in the Middle East.

Ministers in this country also fear a political backlash if the Channel migration crisis undermines security.

The Home Office is planning to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, but the scheme is currently blocked by the courts on human rights grounds.

At the end of June 2023, there were 134,046 asylum applications, relating to 175,457 people, awaiting an initial decision. In the 12 months to June this year, 44,460 people arrived in the UK on small boats.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, said: “I think the public does have a right to know that something has happened. If they are worried about reaction, people need to know whether their streets are safe.

“I was shocked by the flag-waving on Saturday. ‘From the river to the sea’ is Hamas’s song for getting rid of the Jews,” he said, referring to the chant by some demonstrators.

“It would be helpful to know these things are happening. I understand the sensitivities. The issue is whether people have a right to know whether things are going on on their streets.

“It needs to be carefully done but we need a greater level of clarity about whether we have a problem about extremists on our streets.”

Asked if there was squeamishness over links to migration, he said: “All these things are connected. I understand the sensitivities but the police need to be clear if this was an attack by an extremist. We need to know that.”

A senior counter-terror official said: “It just illustrates the risk when you get stressed individuals coming from all parts of the world, including places where they will have participated in or witnessed savagery.

“It is linked to migration. As a result of full-scale migration, we are getting a lot of people.”

On Friday, Mr Hall said of planned demonstrations this weekend: “I don’t want to alarm and the last march that took place seemed to take place without too much criminality.

“We have got a stable society and for reasons I don’t completely understand, I admit, we are not like France who seem to get the first attacks.

“Of course I am worried. I am worried really about the lone actors who will effectively feel they get permission from big group demonstrations.

“If people start saying this is the sort of thing we can afford and we should do, I am worried about the cork coming out of the bottle and some lone individual saying: ‘Right, now it’s time to act.’”

He said that in the past there had been “a lot of lurkers” who had gone on to commit acts of terrorism.

“Often lone individuals have gone and stabbed someone or tried to create some explosives,” he said.

“You tend to find that they have been at some of these marches, not necessarily the Palestinian marches but I am thinking of the al Muhajiroun-type marches.”

Mr Hall criticised the BBC for refusing to refer to the Hamas attack on Israel as an act of terrorism because: “I think people need to know there are no special exemptions.

“If it is terrorism, it is terrorism and if they encourage that or glorify it, that doesn’t mean that just because it’s Israel some special exemption applies.”

A Whitehall source said: “There is a public interest issue here. When this goes to court all of this will come out but it’s too late by then, especially if there are further attacks.

“Unless the Home Office say that this will impact the threat level, there is no reason why they can’t press this matter with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.”

Earlier this week, Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, expressed fears of terrorist attacks in Britain prompted by the fighting between Israel and Gaza.

He said: “There is clearly 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.”

On Friday, Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, met the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The board said the BBC’s decision to change its description of Hamas was “progress”, but it would continue to push for the broadcaster to call Hamas terrorists.

Jewish groups have accused the corporation of double standards because BBC journalists have described numerous other atrocities as “terror attacks” in the past.

On Friday, the Metropolitan Police announced there had been a 13-fold increase in anti-Semitic offences this month compared with the same time last year.

Officers have made 21 arrests for hate crime offences linked to the war in Gaza, and offences involving Islamophobia went up from 42 to 101 this month compared with last year.

Since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Oct 7, almost 1,400 referrals have been made to the Metropolitan Police’s online counter-terrorism unit about material posted on the internet, with more than 100 requiring further investigation to see if there was a breach of the Terrorism Act.

The Community Security Trust, which protects British Jews from anti-Semitism and related threats, said it had recorded 533 anti-Semitic incidents since Oct 7 – the highest total ever across a 14-day period.  A spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing said: “Any accusation that the public have been misled or that information has been deliberately withheld is wrong and grossly misleading.

“The case the Telegraph refers to is subject to active legal proceedings. However, we have issued several public statements in relation to this matter previously.

“We routinely share and publicise information about ongoing investigations, arrests and charges, through our online channels, and by updating the media direct.

“Just this morning (Friday 20 October) a senior counter terrorism commander briefed members of the UK media about the work being done to monitor emerging threats that could arise from the Israel-Hamas conflict, and provided details of a separate arrest made by the Counter Terrorism Command this week.

“Communities defeat terrorism. Sharing information with the public and encouraging them to report anything that doesn’t feel right, is a vital part of our mission.”