The U.S. has seen a "sobering" increase in domestic terrorism-related threats since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, according to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Monaco told ABC News that the FBI has looked into more than 1,800 reports "of threats or other types of tips or leads" related to the war.
With the biggest concern being lone wolves and small groups taking action with little to no notice, Monaco added the bureau currently has more than 100 open investigations tied to the conflict.
"I think we're in a unique moment where what we're most worried about — those of us in the national security and law enforcement community — are individuals or small groups who are often radicalized online and who are motivated by and influenced by a range of ideologies, from foreign terrorism and foreign terrorist organizations to domestic grievances," Monaco told ABC News in an interview that will air Sunday on "This Week."
"Oftentimes, what we're seeing in the most lethal form is from racially or ethnically-motivated ideologies."
FBI Director Christopher Wray, in calling for the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, told a Senate committee earlier this month that the Israel-Hamas war had drawn heightened concern about the possibility of extremist violence on U.S. soil and contributed to threats being at a "whole other level" since the Oct. 7 attacks.
Wray said "702 allows us to stay a step ahead of foreign actors located outside the U.S. who pose a threat to national security."
"And the expiration of our 702 authorities would be devastating to the FBI's ability to protect Americans from those threats," he added.
Monaco told ABC News that many threats or tips received by law enforcement have been "resolved without incident." However, the vast amount of threats have caused "a lot of strain" on U.S. law enforcement.
"These are threats, they're hoaxes, they can involve claims of terrorist financing," Monaco said of the reports being probed. "So that is the volume — the significant uptick in the volume and frequency of the types of reports we're getting."
The deputy director also said the Justice Department has seen a surge in threats targeting political and government officials.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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