Counter terror cops' fears as 11-year-olds referred to Prevent programme amid Israel-Gaza war

19 January 2024, 18:28

Children as young as 11 are being referred to an anti-radicalisation programme as counter terrorism police say online activity linked to the war between Israel and Hamas is at a level never seen before.

Senior officers have expressed concerns at the conflict becoming a "radicalisation moment" as they reveal 3,000 referrals have been made to them since 7th October 2023.

Of those, around 700 have been identified as potentially breaking UK laws.

Referrals to the Prevent programme are up 13% since Hamas's massacre and those include children as young as 11.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes, the head of counter terrorism policing, explained to reporters that in the weeks after Hamas attacked innocent Israelis, there was a 15-fold increase through their internet referral program,

"We're always looking for a needle in a haystack with these reports but when the haystack gets 15 times bigger, we have to put more resources into it," he said.

AC Jukes said experience shows foreign conflicts will always cause a spike in terrorist-related activity.

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But he told LBC: "What we've seen is really unprecedented, particularly in the online world. That is a real shift and it's certainly a greater spike than we've seen in other conflicts and even in previous peaks in conflict between Israel and Hamas.

"My worry is that this translates into a greater threat. What we're seeing is more extremist online content, more concern about what young people are engaged with and more concern from the public.

"The threat level in the UK hasn't shifted since the 7th October and that's kept under very close review by colleagues in the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre but what we do know is that events around the world have this impact."

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The UK's terror threat level has remained at "substantial" since February 2022 meaning an attack is likely.

It's the third level of threat out of five categories.

But Mr Jukes said there is a concern that radicalisation has a "long tail" and that younger people are increasingly being exposed to extremist content.

Since 7th October, there’s been a 13% increase in the number of people referred to the Prevent programme, when compared to the same period in 2022.

It was revealed that of those people, some are as young as 11 or 12 years old, with the rise directly related to the conflict in the Middle East.

Of some of the cases that come across his desk, Matt Jukes also said: "We're seeing some people who have never been engaged in a conversation about some of these events before and in some instances have made statements that have crossed the line.

"Quite a lot have not come to our attention previously and in some cases perhaps have not understood that there are boundaries.

"Of course there are also others who have done so knowingly."

As of the start of the year, 33 arrests have been made under terrorism legislation, linked to the conflict in Gaza.

A total of 19 of them were related to protests or public meetings and 13 were to do with social media posts or online commentary.

Seven charges have been made with the others on bail or still under investigation.