Eye on Extremism: August 13, 2025
Top Stories
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to name Hamas on the UN's blacklist in his annual report on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), an advanced draft copy of the report, as it was distributed to members of the Security Council and seen by The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, shows. The list is specifically of parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.” The key term here is “patterns,” as it indicates that acts of sexual violence committed by Palestinians in the Hamas-led massacre cross-border attack on October 7 were not incidental or random, but intentional and deliberate acts of war.
Reuters: Nearly 600 killed in Nigeria airstrikes in eight months, air force says
Nigeria's military has killed 592 armed militia members in the northeastern state of Borno in the past eight months, after stepping up air strikes in a region hit by years of violence, the air force said. The results surpassed the operational gains recorded in 2024, Chief of Air Staff Hasan Abubakar said during a visit to Borno Governor Babagana Zulum on Tuesday. Militants from Boko Haram and its splinter group, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have attacked security forces and civilians in Nigeria’s northeast, causing widespread displacement and thousands of deaths.
Analysis
Washington Institute: How “Day After” Governance of Gaza Can Draw from Existing Plans
In announcing their August 8 decision to temporarily “take over” all of Gaza, Israeli officials issued a set of principles for how Arab states could oversee governance of the Strip after Israel’s presence ends. Although these principles provided few details and no timeline, they clarified several important points, such as Israel’s desire to exercise some sort of security oversight, bar Hamas or the Palestinian Authority from governing Gaza, and demilitarize the territory.
Homeland Security Today: ISIS 2025: The Silent Resurgence
From Afghanistan to Somalia, the Sahel to cyberspace, networks affiliated with ISIS and Al-Qa’ida are restructuring, recruiting, and exploiting geopolitical instability to launch a new operational phase—less visible, more dangerous. Even in institutional collapses like Sudan or Haiti—where jihadist presence is not yet dominant—there exist chaotic, ungoverned spaces increasingly conducive to extremist infiltration. These may soon provide ideological shelter, recruiting grounds, or logistical corridors for the next evolution of global jihad.
Jewish Insider: Trump’s all-or-nothing approach to campus antisemitism
For the dozens of universities facing federal scrutiny for their handling of antisemitism, it’s not clear whether there is anything they can do to escape the wrath of the White House — except, perhaps, agreeing to pricey settlements with the Trump administration
ICCT: "Ticket to Bandera": Doxing Foreign Fighters for Ukraine
Doxing, the act of revealing an individual's personal information in the online public space with the general intent of causing harm, forms an integral part of the Russian playbook against Ukraine since 2014. The practice is also utilised to target foreign fighters/volunteers who deployed to Ukraine to fight against Russia. To accomplish the task, Russia mobilises a global network which dehumanises Moscow’s foes on specially designated doxing channels on Telegram or other online platforms while wishing they acquire the so-called “ticket to Bandera”, a colloquial motif implying they will die and proverbially meet the long-deceased leader of Ukrainian nationalism, Stepan Bandera.
United States
The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had found George Washington University in violation of federal civil rights law for acting “deliberately indifferent to the hostile educational environment for Jewish, American-Israeli, and Israeli students and faculty.” In a letter sent to GWU President Ellen Granberg on Tuesday, the Justice Department said it had found the school acted “deliberately indifferent to the complaints it received, the misconduct that occurred, and the harms that were suffered by its students and faculty,” citing the “antisemitic, disruptive protests” that occurred on its campus in April and May 2024.
France
A 65-year-old Jewish man was violently attacked and his Star of David necklace ripped from his neck in Livry-Gargan, Paris on Saturday 9 August. According to the complaint filed with the French police, Dov Sitruk was walking alone on the street wearing a kippah when a car with three people stopped next to him. Two of them left the car and asked him for directions, but out of nowhere began hitting him in the face, pushing him, grabbing his collar and then tore his gold Star of David necklace from his neck.
Germany
BILD: This right-wing extremist is to lead the AfD Youth
The AfD is planning to re-found its youth organization in November. Its predecessor, the "Junge Alternative" (JA), was forced to disband at the AfD party conference in January - too radical, too uncontrollable. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution had classified the JA 2023 as right-wing extremist. The acting head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Brandenburg, Axel Heidrich, describes Hohm as a right-wing extremist within the AfD parliamentary group. In the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution report, he is accused of glorifying vigilante justice and violent scenarios as "militancy and self-defence".
WDR: Right-wing extremist group "Kombat 89": turbo-radicalization via TikTok
The far-right group calls itself "Kombat 89" and posts disturbing videos with weapons on TikTok and Instagram. Shortly after an online research team reports on the new neo-Nazi group, a raid is carried out on the alleged head of "Kombat 89". The police find banned weapons and confiscate data. Now suspected members of the group have responded to public pressure and the police investigation. The group has started posting martial videos and pictures on TikTok and Instagram. Suspected members like and share videos of Russian right-wing extremists and Hitler salutes, among other things.
Italy
Times of Israel: Jewish man, pregnant wife reportedly attacked in antisemitic incident in Venice
A Jewish couple has reportedly been attacked in Venice by three men calling the husband a “dirty Jew,” according to Italian media. The Venice newspaper Il Gazzettino reports that the man and the woman, American tourists in the Italian city for a brief vacation, belong to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic group and were therefore very recognizable as Jewish, with the man sporting a kippa and a long beard. The woman is five months pregnant. According to Il Gazzettino, which quotes anonymous witnesses, the tourists were taking a walk near the iconic Rialto Bridge in the city center late Saturday night, when three men began harassing them, unprovoked.
Russia
Jerusalem Post: Three firebombs hurled at Russian synagogue for second arson attack this year
At least three firebombs were thrown at an Obninsk synagogue on Tuesday night, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, just over a year after the same synagogue was targeted in another arson attack. The bottles containing a mixture of incendiary chemicals damaged the entrance of the building. A photograph of the Kaluga Oblast house of worship showed a scorched door and a warped metal canopy. The previous July 10, 2024, attack saw vandals set fire to the synagogue's electrical box. The incident also saw the synagogue's windows and fence damaged, but vandals were unable to break into the building. Police later arrested two minors in relation to the incident.
Israel
New York Times: Israel Hasn’t Prosecuted a Single Suspect for the Oct. 7 Attack
Several hundred Palestinians have been detained on suspicion of direct involvement, and at least 200 of them remain in custody, according to public records. Israeli military officials have said that at least several dozen Palestinians were arrested in or near Israeli territory around the time of the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. In addition to those detainees, Israel is holding roughly 2,700 other Palestinians who were rounded up in the Gaza Strip over the 21 months since the attack, according to government data. They are suspected of affiliation with Hamas or other militant groups in Gaza, but not necessarily of direct involvement in the Oct. 7 attack.
Jerusalem Post: IDF chief of staff approves expanded Gaza operation plans
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, on Wednesday, approved the central concept and plans for the IDF's expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, the military said. The discussion held by Zamir also included Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) officials and other senior defense officials in attendance. A plan for further steps to be taken in the Gaza Strip was also presented and approved. On Thursday, Zamir and other IDF commanders will present the central ideas for the occupation of Gaza City to Defense Minister Israel Katz. Upon that approval, forces will be notified and deployed to Gaza, and a number of reserve units will be called up.
Israel may send negotiators to Doha this week for meetings on a comprehensive agreement for the release of hostages held by Hamas and a ceasefire in Gaza, according to an Israeli television report on Tuesday, as Arab states and the US also push for a final deal to end the 22-month war. The efforts by Israel, the United States and a few Middle Eastern countries signaled that officials have not given up on the prospect of an agreement despite a recent breakdown in negotiations over a temporary ceasefire last month.
Gaza Strip
Terror operatives in the central Gaza Strip posed as members of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) humanitarian organization earlier this week, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday, publishing footage of the incident. Israel continued to carry out airstrikes across Gaza on Tuesday, as troops briefly came under mortar fire, and Palestinian media reported that Israeli special forces abducted one Gazan man to Israel from the central city of Deir al-Balah.
Lebanon
Reuters: No armed groups allowed in Lebanon, president tells Hezbollah's ally Iran
No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, its president told a visiting senior Iranian official on Wednesday after the cabinet approved the goals of a U.S.-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group. During a meeting in Beirut with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's top security body, Joseph Aoun warned against foreign interference in Lebanon's internal affairs, saying the country was open to cooperation with Iran but only within the bounds of national sovereignty and mutual respect.
Syria
The Cradle: Arab states court Syria’s Sharaa, but few trust his Al-Qaeda-linked rule
On 2 February 2025, interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani) made his first foreign visit to Riyadh, receiving a high-profile welcome from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). It was the clearest sign yet that Saudi Arabia is willing to bet on a man who once led the former Al-Qaeda-aligned faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), now rebranded as Syria’s transitional head of state.
Afghanistan
The US State Department’s 2024 annual report on Afghanistan has documented extensive human rights abuses by the Taliban, including severe restrictions on women, press freedom, arbitrary detentions, suppression of civil liberties. In the report, released Tuesday, the State Department said respect for the rights of women and girls had sharply declined over the past year. It stressed that the Taliban’s “morality” law imposes sweeping limits on the personal lives of all Afghans, particularly women and girls.
Hasht-e Subh Daily: Al-Qaeda and Panjshir: The New Haven for Transnational Terrorism
Since the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan has once again become a haven for multinational and transnational terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda and ISIS. Growing warnings from certain powers about the strengthening of these groups in various parts of the country have deepened concerns over escalating regional security threats. Among these, the expanding activities of ISIS-Khorasan and al-Qaeda have increasingly dominated security assessments.
Pakistan
A mortar struck a home and killed two children and their mother in a northwestern Pakistani region where security forces are carrying out a “targeted operation ” against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and a hospital official said Wednesday. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the overnight civilian casualties in Mamund, a town in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.
Burkina Faso
APA News: Burkina Faso convicts six for 2018 attacks on French embassy and military
The Burkinabe justice system has sentenced six individuals for their involvement in the coordinated attacks of March 2, 2018, against the French General Staff and Embassy in Ouagadougou. The attacks, claimed by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), left 16 people dead, including eight attackers.
Congo
Reuters: Congo army and rebels trade blame over clashes, troop buildup
Congo's army on Tuesday accused Rwanda-backed rebels of carrying out multiple attacks in eastern Congo which it said violated agreements signed in Washington and Doha, and warned it reserved the right to respond to provocations. The army statement came a day after the rebel group, known as M23, accused Congolese forces of mobilising more troops and violating the terms of a declaration of principles signed on July 19 in Doha voicing support for a permanent ceasefire. M23 rebels seized eastern Congo's largest city Goma in January as part of a rapid advance that has given them control of more territory than ever before.
Reuters: US imposes sanctions on Congo armed group, mining firms over illicit minerals
The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against an armed group aligned with Congo's military as well as a Congolese mining company and two Hong Kong-based exporters over armed violence and the sale of critical minerals.
The measures are the latest taken by the administration of President Donald Trump to try to bring peace to eastern Congo, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels staged a lightning advance earlier this year, spurring violence that has killed thousands of people.
Mali
The arrests were tied to an apparent coup attempt to destabilize the institutions of the Sahel nation. According to security and political sources, the arrests were carried out in a massive nighttime operation targeting troops accused of attempting to depose Mali's military leadership. The detentions are anticipated to continue in the coming days, highlighting growing internal tensions within the junta. "Since three days ago, there have been arrests linked to an attempt to destabilise the institutions. There have been at least around 20 arrests," a Malian security source told AFP.
Nigeria
Deutsche Welle: Military says dozens of gang members killed
The military in Nigeria said it killed more than 100 armed gang members, taking them out in a joint air and ground operation in the northwestern state of Zamfara. The operation took place "in the early hours" of Sunday in the Bukkuyum local government area, the military said. The move came after more than 400 gang members were seen preparing to attack a village. Armed groups — which are often called "bandits" by locals — have been terrorizing communities across the northwest and central Nigeria. Nigerian Air Force spokesperson Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame said that the airstrike killed "several notorious kingpins and scores of their footsoldiers."
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