Email from Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Inside Hamas: How It Thinks, Fights, and Governs Eye on Extremism October 7, 2025   Top Stories Jerusalem Post: Antisemitism in the mainstream: Fighting the plague of post-Oct. 7 Jew-hatred On October 7, 2023, Hamas’s massacre shocked the conscience of the world. The brutality was undeniable; the grief and sympathy were relatively widespread. Yet, almost immediately, another shock unfolded – a moral inversion in parts of civil society in the West that rationalized, minimized, or even celebrated the destruction, mass bloodshed, rape, and murder. In the space created by that inversion, the genie of antisemitism burst from its bottle, turning what had long been whispered on the margins of society into something shouted on the streets, projected on public buildings, scrawled across campuses, and echoed in boardrooms, newsrooms, and parliaments. CTC Sentinel: Inside Hamas: How It Thinks, Fights, and Governs Hamas has evolved from a Muslim Brotherhood-rooted social-religious movement into a hybrid actor that governs, polices society, and wages organized violence. The October 7, 2023, terrorist attack marked a watershed for Israel and the world. Against that backdrop, this article maps how Hamas thinks, operates, fights, and governs—from its origins to the present—showing how a religious structure and social-welfare dawa network hardened into an organized war machine. Based on first-hand interviews with senior figures, including its founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, it details the ideology, organizational architecture, and decision-making that drive both the dawa apparatus and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.   CounterPoint Blogs & Briefs Terrorist Financing Through Scams: Current Evidence and Emerging Risks Sahel Monitoring July 2025 De Retour de Daech: Les combattant∙e∙s allemands et leurs familles TIP’s Nebulous Origins—Tracing History by Aliases   CEP Mentions Jerusalem Post: Houthi figures may have connections to Al-Qaeda, other terror groups An article at the Counter Extremism Project, “Eyes of the Regime: How the Houthi Security and Intelligence Service Ensures Political Domination in Yemen,” described Marani as a key figure in the Houthi intelligence system. “As early as 2017, Hassan al-Marrani was appointed director of the Intelligence Department in the National Security Bureau. In 2018, al-Marrani was also serving in the ostensibly benign role of director general at the Yemeni Economic Corporation. In this capacity, according to a leaked document, he worked to promote Houthi recruitment by calling ‘for the speedy preparation of lists of the names of employees who are ready to participate in the war and submitting them to administrative affairs for qualification, within three days.’” The Medialine: ‘The Risk Is Very High’: Expert Says IS-KP Could Recruit From Forced Returnees The UN further stated that the greatest danger comes from IS-KP, which has around 2,000 fighters and, in recent years, has carried out deadly attacks in Russia, Iran, and Pakistan, showing the group’s capability across borders. Hans-Jakob Schindler, a former coordinator of a UN committee monitoring armed groups, told AFP on Thursday, “The risk is very high that IS-KP will see these newly returned Afghan citizens as an opportunity for recruitment.” According to Schindler, “Since August 2021, the group has continued to recruit not only disgruntled Taliban members but also Afghans who feel excluded from the new government.” WELT: “Every decision—no matter what it is—leads to ruin.” CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed on the situation with Hamas and antisemitism. Cicero: “Hostages are Hamas's most important card” [CEP Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler, security expert and long-time observer of extremist groups in the Middle East, talks in an interview about the current negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Egypt. Trump's peace plan already shows promising signs, even if further hurdles remain. Notícias ao Minuto: Drones over Germany pose "medium- and long-term threat" "Drone flights over critical infrastructure, military installations, and military transport are clearly intended to gather information and intelligence about these facilities, as well as about German response patterns," security expert [CEP Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler told Lusa. Analysis CTC Sentinel: A View from the CT Foxhole: Zohar Palti, Former Director, Policy & Political-Military Bureau, Israel’s Ministry of Defense Palti retired from Israeli government service in 2022 after four decades in some of the most sensitive positions in Israel’s national security establishment. These included serving as the Director of the Policy & Political-Military Bureau at Israel’s Ministry of Defense, where his responsibilities included conducting and leading Israel’s defense ties with strategic partners around the world. Prior to that, Palti led the Mossad Intelligence Directorate (in a rank equivalent to a major general), and before that, he was the counterterrorism chief of the organization. Jerusalem Post: Looking at militia, terror groups from other places can show how Hamas can be disarmed - analysis With discussions taking place in Egypt over Trump’s Gaza peace plan, it’s worth looking back and considering what history can tell us about how to disarm Hamas. Disarming the group will be one of the key issues to be discussed. Looking at some recent disarmaments and considering what worked and what failed to bring peace can help better prepare for the successful demilitarization of Gaza. Learning about history can be instructive for what may happen in Gaza. United States Axios: ADL split marks FBI shift away from targeting right-wing violence, scholars say The FBI's split with the Anti-Defamation League this week is the latest evidence that the Trump administration is moving away from targeting hate groups in favor of investigating what it deems left-wing violence, scholars told Axios. Why it matters: The ADL had, since at least 1940, worked with law enforcement to combat extremism and antisemitism, which the Trump administration has maintained is still a priority. Scholars said that under President Trump, the FBI is less invested in right-wing domestic terrorism. Axios: FBI axes partnership with civil rights watchdog SPLC FBI Director Kash Patel has cut all ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a storied civil rights group that tracks hate-motivated violence across the U.S. Why it matters: The separation is the latest example of the Trump administration turning away from civil rights watchdogs by branding them as partisan and discriminatory rather than protectors of marginalized communities. What they're saying: "The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine," Patel wrote in a post on X. The Week: Political violence: The rise in leftist terrorism For the first time in more than three decades, “attacks by far-left extremists are outpacing far-right violence,” said Zachary Basu in Axios. That’s the finding of a new study from the nonpartisan Center for Strategic & International Studies, which looked at 750 domestic attacks and plots from 1994 through this summer. For almost all that period, far-right terrorism was “more frequent and more lethal”; in the past decade alone, right-wing extremists killed 112 people in the U.S., while leftist attacks killed 13. But “America’s domestic terrorism landscape has undergone a remarkable inversion since President Trump returned to office,” with at least five leftist attacks or plots recorded in the first six months of the year compared with one right-wing attack. Venezuela NBC News: Venezuela denounces alleged 'extremist' plan to attack shuttered U.S. Embassy complex Venezuela warned Monday of an alleged plan by extremists to attack the shuttered U.S. Embassy complex in Caracas with explosives, coming as bilateral tensions simmer over Washington’s military deployment in the Caribbean. Jorge Rodríguez, head of the National Assembly and of Venezuela’s delegation for dialogue with the U.S., said in a statement that through “three different channels,” the United States had been warned “of a serious threat” from right-wing groups posing as followers of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Germany Jüdische Allgemeine: Danger for Jewish institutions: Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns of "considerable threat situation" In view of the second anniversary of the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Tuesday, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution sees a "considerable threat situation" for Germany as well. "Hamas' terror has not only had fatal consequences in Israel - they are still having an impact in Germany today by strengthening anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli narratives and giving extremists of all stripes a new breeding ground," explained the Vice President of the Federal Office, Sinan Selen, in Cologne on Monday. Extremist groups were trying to instrumentalize the suffering of this conflict for their ideologies. Targeted research, hacker attacks, the deliberate dissemination of false information, attempts to influence people and efforts to pass on sensitive technologies were cited as dangers. Deutsche Welle: Germany's AfD seeks closer ties with the MAGA movement Beatrix von Storch, deputy chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany's parliamentary group in the Bundestag, recently made headlines with her visit to the United States in September 2025. In Washington, von Storch confirmed she met Trump administration officials in a White House annex. Her American counterparts reportedly included staff from the office of US Vice President JD Vance, plus representatives from the US State Department and National Security Council. Von Storch described the talks on the platform X as "very open, constructive, and goal-oriented." The meeting between US officials and the German visitors seems to have focused on German domestic politics, with the AfD using the moment to promote its agenda. RND: More protests with anti-Semitic content after Hamas attack on Israel Since the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, many Jews in Germany have experienced anti-Semitism. The Federal Association of Research and Information Centers on Anti-Semitism (Rias) is also seeing an increase in protests with anti-Semitic content. "Calls for the annihilation of Israel, advocacy of violence against Jews, open support for Hamas terror and the relativization of the Shoah - two years after October 7, all of this has become the depressing normality," explained Benjamin Steinitz, Managing Director of the Rias federal association. Rias documents "anti-Semitic incidents above and below the threshold of criminal liability from the perspective of those affected", as the association writes in a recently published report. United Kingdom Reuters: UK prosecutors appeal dismissal of terrorism charge against Kneecap rapper Britain's prosecution service said on Tuesday it was appealing a court decision to dismiss terrorism charges against a member of Irish rap group Kneecap, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, also known as Mo Chara. The charge - relating to the alleged display of a flag of Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah during a London concert in November 2024 - was thrown out last month after the court ruled it had been brought outside the six-month statutory limit. Russia Moscow Times: FSB Says It Foiled Planned Attack on Synagogue Ahead of Oct. 7 Anniversary Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday that it had thwarted planned attacks on Jewish religious sites in the Krasnoyarsk and Stavropol regions. Two men from Central Asia were arrested in Krasnoyarsk on suspicion of plotting to detonate a homemade bomb at a local synagogue, the FSB said. A Russian citizen was arrested in the city of Pyatigorsk for allegedly planning to set fire to a Jewish community building using Molotov cocktails. FSB video shared by state news agencies showed the arrests, what appeared to be explosives and other materials, and the recorded confessions of the arrested individuals. Turkey Nordic Monitor: Turkey’s release of ISIS detainees fuels European terrorism threat Turkey’s deliberate practice of allowing ISIS detainees to go to destinations of their choice, enabling them to roam freely and continue their jihadist activities outside of Turkey, continues to pose a national security threat for Europe, as proven in a Dutch case in which the District Court of Rotterdam sentenced a 31-year-old Tajik man to five-and-a-half years in prison for long-term membership in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The court ruling, delivered on July 21 of this year, described in meticulous detail how the suspect’s jihadist career unfolded across multiple countries and how Turkey’s decision to release him in 2016 paved the way for his eventual establishment in Western Europe. Israel New York Times: Gaza Peace Talks Take Place Just Ahead of 2nd Anniversary of Oct. 7 As Israel prepared to mourn on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, talks to end the devastating war in Gaza were expected to continue on Tuesday in Egypt, with the focus on a hostages-for-prisoners swap proposed by the Trump administration. The grim anniversary falls on Sukkot, a Jewish harvest festival. Most businesses across Israel will be closed for the holiday and the government has delayed formal commemorations until later this month. As a consequence, the mood is expected to be subdued. Some relatives of hostages gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Monday night to hold a holiday prayer service and to call for an end to the conflict. Times of Israel: Zamir puts IDF on highest alert for Sukkot, coinciding with 2nd anniversary of Hamas invasion IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has instructed the military to raise its level of alert to the highest possible amid the Sukkot holiday, the army announced. The week-long festival began on Monday evening and its first full day coincides with the second anniversary of the invasion and massacre on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 251. Forty-eight hostages are still held in Gaza. The move comes following an assessment Zamir held Monday with the Israel Defense Forces’ top brass, the military said. Fox News: Israel’s covert campaign targets Hamas terrorists behind Oct 7 massacre Israel continues to conduct an extensive campaign to locate and eliminate Palestinian terrorists involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, analysts told Fox News Digital, describing the policy as a decades-old doctrine aimed at both deterrence and retribution. Last month, the Israel Defense Forces announced the elimination of Hasan Mahmoud Hasan Hussein, who on Oct. 7 led the brutal attack on a bomb shelter on Route 232 in Kibbutz Re’im, where 16 people were brutally murdered in the assault. Four others were taken hostage to Gaza, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was later killed in captivity. Gaza Strip Reuters: Gaza talks turn to key sticking points between Israel, Hamas Delegations from Israel and Hamas held their first day of indirect negotiations in Egypt on Monday on U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to halt the war in Gaza, wrestling with contentious issues such as demands that Israel withdraw and Hamas disarm. Israel and Hamas have both endorsed the overall principles behind Trump's plan, under which fighting would cease, hostages go free and aid pour into Gaza. The plan also has the backing of Arab and Western states. Trump has called for negotiations to take place swiftly towards a final deal, in what Washington hails as the closest the sides have yet come to ending the two-year-old conflict. Jerusalem Post: Who is Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's chief negotiator at the forefront of Gaza peace talks? Khalil al-Hayya, the senior Hamas official who survived an Israeli raid on Qatar last month, was heading back to indirect talks with Israeli counterparts on Monday over US President Donald Trump's plan to end the Israel-Hamas War. Hayya, who lost a son in the current Gaza war and two sons in previous conflicts, has been based with other Hamas leaders in Doha. The most recent of Hayya’s sons to perish in the conflict, Humam al-Hayya, was killed in Doha last month in an Israeli strike in the Qatari capital. Six people were killed in the strike, five of whom, including Humam, were members of Hamas. Burkina Faso Agence France-Presse: Burkina Frees Two Activists Press-ganged To Fight Jihadists Burkina Faso has freed two civil society activists press-ganged into fighting the Sahel country's jihadist insurgency for over a year, sources close to the pair told AFP Tuesday. Since taking power in a September 2022 coup, the west African country's junta has been accused of silencing its critics by sending dissident voices to the front lines. Mali Institute for Security Studies: Terrorist roadblocks strangle the economies of Mali and its neighbours Since 3 September, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has been obstructing traffic on the strategic roads linking Mali to Senegal and Mauritania. The terrorist group is carrying out its threat to blockade the cities of Kayes and Nioro in retaliation for the local populations’ alleged support for the Malian army. Arab Weekly: Ukraine-Russia war tactics seep into Mali’s desert as Tuareg get help from Kiev From explosive drones to inflatable decoy vehicles, Tuareg rebels in Mali have increasingly turned to tactics learnt from Ukrainian intelligence to strike the west African country’s army and its Russian allies. The tactics are reshaping the balance in the conflict between Mali’s junta government and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a pro-independence armed coalition of predominantly Tuareg groups fighting over the Azawad territory in the country’s north. Morocco Agence de Presse Africaine: UN, Morocco celebrate five years of counterterrorism cooperation The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) celebrated cooperation with Morocco in counter-terrorism training and capacity-building in Africa on Monday in Rabat, marking the fifth anniversary of the opening of its regional office. In a statement issued on this occasion, UNOCT stated that this celebration “illustrates the continued cooperation between the Organisation and Morocco to enhance regional security and counter-terrorism capacities on the African continent.” Nigeria Catholic World Report: Survivors give harrowing testimony about deadly Rijana jihadist camps A leading Nigerian-based human rights group has called on the Nigerian military to free over 850 Christians who have for months been held hostage by Fulani jihadists in a forest in Kaduna state. The International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, in a September 28 release, challenged the Nigerian military to do its duty by the Christians and release them from the stranglehold of the Fulani jihadists. “The more than 850 Christian hostages inside Rijana jihadists’ camps are also reported to be those abducted between December 2024 and August 2025, during which no fewer than 100, according to freed captives’ accounts, were killed or hacked to death,” the release states. Technology CBS News: New report warns extremist groups increasingly using AI to intensify antisemitic propaganda A new intelligence bulletin published by a non-profit security organization warns that extremist groups are increasingly using artificial intelligence to intensify antisemitic propaganda, recruitment and operations targeting Jewish communities across North America.   Latest CEP Webinar: “Transnational Connections Between Antisemitic Extremist and Terrorist Actors" Subscribe to CEP's YouTube Channel to watch all of our past webinars, expert analysis and interviews, and helpful summaries of our resources!   The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is a nonprofit and non-partisan international policy organization working to combat the growing threat posed by extremist ideologies. CEP depends on the generosity of its supporters. If you value what we do, please consider making a donation. DONATE Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe for yourself here. 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