Cities across the United States were taking extra security precautions on Friday after Hamas called for a day of protest around the world, rhetoric that raised tensions in Jewish and Muslim communities.
Top U.S. counterterrorism officials and law enforcement officials in many cities said there were no credible threats related to the Israel-Gaza war. But authorities were still increasing security around religious institutions and other public places.
In New York City, which has been on edge in the week since the attacks in Israel began, police officials reassured residents and planned to increase patrols around synagogues and mosques and deploy more uniformed officers at large gatherings and cultural sites.
There was a noticeable increase in police presence, whether at transit hubs like Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal or synagogues and other Jewish sites. Jewish day schools were on high alert on Friday, with some canceling classes.
“We have this situation under control,” Rebecca Weiner, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said on Thursday at a news conference.
Officials in Los Angeles were increasing patrols around Jewish sites out of an “abundance of caution” ahead of planned protests and demonstrations, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency, which enabled officials to bolster law enforcement around school campuses and protests.
Advocacy organizations have reported an increase of hateful rhetoric and violence against Jews and Muslims. The Fresno Police Department in California said on Tuesday it was investigating two incidents involving vandalism — one at a temple and the other at a restaurant and bakery — as hate crimes.
In Columbus, Ohio, protesters at a pro-Palestine demonstration Thursday night said a person shouted obscenities about Palestinians and then swerved his car to hit a protester on a bike, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch.
Protests around New York have been largely peaceful, but the anxieties the gatherings produced were testament to the shock felt over the attacks.
On Friday morning, a councilwoman who has been critical of recent pro-Palestine rallies in the city was arrested after showing up to one at Brooklyn College on Thursday with a pistol on her waist.
The councilwoman, Inna Vernikov, one of the city’s few Republican elected officials, was charged with criminal possession of a firearm. Ms. Vernikov had recently secured a permit to carry a concealed firearm, but openly carrying a firearm in the city is not allowed.
At college campuses across the country, political tensions remain high. In support of Palestinians, students at the University of California, Los Angeles, organized a walkout Thursday.
At Columbia University, competing pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrations led officials to close the campus to the public, and an Israeli student at Columbia was assaulted while hanging fliers. The attack was one of several in New York in the last 24 hours that the police were treating as possible bias incidents.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that since the fighting in Israel began, there has been a “sudden resurgence” of bigotry against Muslims and Jews.
“The past week has been shocking to everyone, not only because of the horrific violence that we’re seeing being directed against Israeli and Palestinian civilians, but also because of the rapid impact that it had here in the United States,” Mr. Mitchell said.
He added that since the attacks in Israel, the council has received “a flurry of complaints” from students, colleges and public schools experiencing harassment or discrimination, and unprompted visits from law enforcement.
“It almost feels like we’ve gone back in time five years to when President Trump was running for office and Islamophobia was essentially out of control in the United States,” he said.
There has been a rise in antisemitic violence in recent years in the United States, but this moment of fear among Jewish communities was especially potent, said Julie Platt, chair of Jewish Federations of North America.
She said the amount of money going toward security efforts in the North American Jewish community is “massively” increasing.
“I, too, have never quite felt this level of fear and anxiety and the depths of sadness,” Ms. Platt said.
