Numerous major terrorist attacks targeting Jews and Israelis around the world have been thwarted, in some cases shortly before they were set to be carried out.
By Hezy Laing
The year 2025 was the deadliest for Jews in the diaspora in more than three decades, marking a troubling shift in the nature of the threats facing Jewish communities around the world.
While some countries recorded fewer overall antisemitic incidents than in 2024, the violence became significantly more lethal, with 40 Jews having been murdered globally.
The emerging pattern is stark: fewer incidents of harassment, but more deadly attacks.
Security officials say the death toll could have been considerably higher.
Over the past year, numerous major terrorist attacks targeting Jews and Israelis around the world have been thwarted, in some cases shortly before they were set to be carried out.
Many of those plots were disrupted through extensive intelligence cooperation between Israel’s Mossad and foreign security agencies.
One major breakthrough came in March 2026, when British security services, working with the Mossad, neutralized an active Iranian intelligence network operating in London.
Authorities arrested an Iranian citizen and three dual Iranian-British nationals who had allegedly been conducting precise surveillance and gathering actionable intelligence on major Jewish community institutions in preparation for an attack.
The London operation was not an isolated case.
At roughly the same time, authorities in Baku, Azerbaijan, foiled an IRGC-linked plot, arresting at least seven Azerbaijani nationals and issuing warrants for four Iranian handlers.
Investigators discovered that the cell had accumulated three explosive devices and was allegedly preparing a series of attacks, including the bombing of the local Ashkenazi synagogue, the assassination of a prominent Jewish community leader, and an attack on the Israeli embassy.
Israeli security officials say the cases reflect a much broader expansion of Iran’s overseas terrorist infrastructure.
“The Iranians have substantially expanded the bodies and infrastructure intended to advance attacks abroad,” a senior figure in Israel’s National Security Council said. “From their perspective, this is a strategic worldview.”
The official warned that the current period poses an especially serious threat.
“Every year this is a period prone to trouble, but this year even more so,” he said.
Intelligence gathered over the past year has also revealed how Tehran increasingly relies on criminal proxies and covert networks, allowing Iran to pursue attacks while maintaining plausible deniability.
An international investigation exposed one such network commanded by Sardar Amar, a senior IRGC Quds Force officer serving under Esmail Qaani. The network had established hidden operational mechanisms designed to facilitate attacks across Germany, Greece, and Australia.
Through the transfer of real-time intelligence to foreign partners, the Mossad has helped dismantle these networks and disrupt planned operations. The revelations have also prompted significant diplomatic responses, including the expulsion of Iranian ambassadors and tighter security around vulnerable Jewish communities abroad.
Iran, however, is not the only organization expanding its efforts to target Jews and Israelis beyond Israel’s borders.
The recent operations follow a massive multinational effort in late 2025 against a European Hamas infrastructure managed from Qatar and Turkey.
As part of that operation, the Mossad assisted German and Austrian authorities in capturing Mahmoud Naim, the son of senior Hamas official Basem Naim.
Investigators subsequently uncovered hidden weapons caches in Austria and arrested multiple operatives. A fourth alleged accomplice was arrested in Germany in January 2026. According to investigators, members of the network were awaiting direct orders to launch mass-casualty attacks.
The overseas activity comes as Hamas faces growing constraints closer to Israel.
While the terrorist group is currently refraining from large-scale action in the Gaza Strip and remains under intense Israeli pressure limiting its freedom of movement in Judea and Samaria, Hamas increasingly views Israeli and Jewish targets abroad as an arena in which it can operate with fewer restrictions.
As a result, Hamas has intensified its efforts to strike Israelis beyond Israel’s borders, adding another layer to a global threat environment that has already made the past year the deadliest for diaspora Jews in decades.
