NEW YORK (WABC) — The New York City Police Department is deploying additional resources to sensitive locations following the Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.
There is no specific threat but the department says it is being done as a precaution and issued the following statement:
“We’re tracking the situation unfolding in Qatar. Out of an abundance of caution, we’re deploying additional resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across NYC and coordinating with our federal partners. We’ll continue to monitor for any potential impact to NYC.”
The NYPD is also monitoring threats, necessitating a surge of resources at critical infrastructure, particularly bridge and tunnel crossings between Queens and Manhattan, Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday.
She declined to elaborate but characterized the threats as typical of what the NYPD sees around the time of UNGA, the Jewish high holidays and the 9/11 anniversary.
A law enforcement source told ABC News the threats are unsubstantiated, nonspecific and vague. However, law enforcement agencies, especially at this time of year in New York, are taking them seriously.
Meanwhile, an NYPD bulletin obtained by ABC News says NYPD began tracking non-credible, non-specific threats in July when counterterrorism officials flagged hostile rhetoric mentioning the United Nations, including one social media post saying, “We should raze the UN headquarters in NYC and install a parking lot.”
A second post issued a call to “bomb” a conference hosted by Saudi Arabi and France at UN headquarters on Manhattan’s East Side. Then, last month, a user posted, “You gotta storm UN Headquarters with the Revolutionary Guard.”
The NYPD bulletin also mentioned the Park Avenue shooting targeting NFL headquarters.
“While the incident was not related to the UN, it underscores the vulnerability of high-profile buildings, especially those linked to global institutions to a wide range of threats from grievance collectors,” the bulletin said.
It all comes after Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas’ leadership in Qatar’s capital city on Tuesday, officials said, widening its campaign against the militant group.
Surveillance footage aired by Al Jazeera shows the strike on buildings that housed Hamas’ political wing in Doha’s diplomatic quarter.
Hamas said in a statement that all of its leaders survived the attack but that five lower-ranked members were killed. Qatar said a member of its Internal Security Force died and others were wounded in the attack.
Qatar has served as a key negotiator in efforts to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, and it was unclear if the attack would stall those efforts.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack Tuesday, saying “all parties must work towards achieving a permanent ceasefire, not destroying it.”
The U.S. embassy in Doha has told all U.S. citizens in the area to shelter in place.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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