Canadian intelligence links 7 alleged terror plots to Gaza war

A new Canadian intelligence report warns that the war in Gaza has significantly increased the threat of lone-wolf terrorism in Canada, with at least seven terror plots in 2025 linked in whole or in part to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“The threat of a domestic lone-actor attack in Canada increased significantly since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict,” the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) stated in its annual report in a section focusing on religiously motivated violent extremism.

“In 2025, at least seven of CSIS’s priority investigations involving mobilization to violence have been assessed as motivated by this conflict in whole or in part,” it continued.

The report warned that the Gaza war “has also fueled violent extremist organization narratives and has the potential to inspire a new generation of extremists.” CSIS added that while the conflict will likely continue motivating extremists in the near term, “understanding the true impact of the conflict will only be clear over time.”

The findings come amid a sharp rise in anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents across Canada since the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

In March, Canada’s Ministry of Public Safety announced a $10 million investment to strengthen security at Jewish institutions nationwide following growing threats and attacks.

“No one in Canada should ever feel unsafe because of who they are, how they pray, or the community they belong to. Jewish communities have been increasingly targeted for hate crimes and impacted by rising hate-related incidents,” Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said at the time.

The funding announcement came after at least three shooting attacks targeting Jewish institutions in Toronto within a single week. Much of the threat, according to critics and security observers, has come from far-left extremists and Islamist radicals using the Middle East conflict as justification to target Jewish Canadians.

In the introduction to the report, CSIS Director Dan Rogers highlighted several recent counterterrorism operations.

“We achieved a number of counterterrorism successes that led to law enforcement action, including the arrests of Hide & Stalk members in Québec, and of a minor who intended to violently target Jewish people and police in Montréal,” Rogers wrote.

Beyond domestic extremism, the report also warned of growing foreign interference and espionage threats against Canada from adversarial states, including China, Russia, Iran, India and Pakistan.

“In 2025, the main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage against Canada remained the People’s Republic of China (PRC), India, the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Pakistan,” the report stated.

CSIS also addressed the issue of transnational repression, describing it as an activity that occurs “when foreign governments, or those acting on their behalf, reach beyond their borders to harass, threaten or harm individuals or groups to advance their interests or to silence criticism and dissent.”

In July 2025, Canada joined 13 other Western countries in condemning “the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty.”

Iran’s regime has long been accused of targeting both Jewish communities and exiled Iranian dissidents living in Western countries.

Earlier this year, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel warned that Canada risked facing a mass-casualty antisemitic attack similar to the one that struck Australia in late 2025.

"The writing was on the wall with the Bondi Massacre, and I see the exact same pattern in Canada," Heskel said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. The minister was referring to the Islamist-motivated murder of 15 Jewish Australians at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach in December 2025.