The Ministry of the Interior has ordered the Information units of the forces and security forces of the State to reinforce the "prevention and protection" of the Jewish community in Spain, after one of the leaders of Hamas has made a calls for "global jihad" as a response to the situation in Gaza, according to sources in the anti-terrorist fight confirmed to La Vanguardia.
However, the possible risk of an attack in Spain - at the moment - is low, according to the intelligence reports that the information services work with.
The protection of the Jewish community - made up of around 45,000 people; a far cry from the almost half a million Jews living in France – which the Interior has ordered to strengthen security in “particularly vulnerable” places, such as the Israeli embassy in Spain, synagogues and other community meeting centers.
When Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February last year, Interior already took similar security measures to protect Ukrainian interests.
The message sent by one of the ideologues of Hamas, Jaled Meixal, has fallen like a bucket of cold water among the Jewish community. Meixal, 67 years old, has called on the Muslim diaspora to apply jihad throughout the world following the ultimatum given by Israel to evacuate the entire north of the Gaza Strip.
The information services of the National Police and the Civil Guard suspect that if the land invasion by the Israeli army finally materializes, the escalation of calls for global jihad could cause a high threat. And this is so, the same sources explain, because the messages are not addressed to organized groups in Western countries, but to lone actors who have become radicalized: the so-called lone wolves, individuals who are very difficult to detect by police radars. Sometimes they experience a process of express radicalization, such as the attacker of two churches in Algeciras (Cadiz) at the beginning of the year, which makes them practically impossible to detect.
It is on this kind of profile that the forces and security bodies of the State have their magnifying glass on. To perpetrate an attack, the experts explain, three conditions must be met: material means, the right opportunity and, above all, the will. And the latter, in numerous previous attacks, has been fueled by an external stimulus, such as Meixal's message in which he encouraged "all those who learn jihad" to lead days of "anger".
