Israel-Gaza Conflict: UK ministers to hold emergency COBRA meeting as threat of terrorism “accelerates”

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UK ministers will hold an emergency COBRA meeting today amid fears that the Israel-Gaza conflict has “accelerated” the threat of terrorism in Britain. Such meetings are called in response to national or regional crises, or during overseas events with major implications for the UK.

The meeting will take place after Britain’s most senior police officer warned that events in the Middle East were having a serious knock-on effect in Britain.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said his force was facing a “particularly challenging time”.

He said the Met had seen an increase in the number of people accessing extremist material online and in the number of “low-level” incidents involving anti-Semitism.

Sir Mark said the force was working with Jewish community groups to “reassure them of our commitment to keeping them safe”.

“When you’ve got state threats from Iran, you’ve got terrorism being accelerated by the events and hate crime in communities.

“For Jewish communities, it’s now about 14-fold increase in antisemitism in London and for Muslim communities, it’s nearly threefold. So this is really precarious. In the middle of it, we’ve got these big protests.”

The COBRA meeting comes as the Israel-Gaza Conflict continues with a major Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 1,000 Palestinians.

The threat level in England, Wales and Scotland is “substantial,” meaning that a terrorist attack is likely. It has been at this level since February 9th last year, when it was lowered from “severe,” meaning highly likely.

Click here for more on the Israel-Gaza Conflict at EU Today

Main image: Alisdare Hickson from Woolwich, United Kingdom, via Wikipedia.