Brussels, Dec 25: Amid the festive ambience of European cities adorned with lights and decorations, this Christmas season is underscored by heightened security measures.

The recent university shooting in the Czech Republic, adding to the previous shooting and stabbing in Belgium and France, respectively, has exacerbated security concerns, casting a shadow over the holiday cheer in the continent, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, despite repeated warnings from security agencies, many tourists vowed these concerns will not impede their holiday plans. According to the travel analytics firm ForwardKeys, intra-European travel is exceeding 2022 levels, driven by sustained post-Covid demand.

"HUGE RISK"

A report from the United Kingdom (UK) National Counter Terrorism Security Office cited data from Western Europe, saying that terrorist attacks do not follow a discernible seasonal pattern. However, the Christmas period presents opportunities for attacks, not simply due to bustling celebrations but also because of its religious symbolism.

Authorities in Europe are on edge during this holiday season, given the recent rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks since the conflicts in the Middle East escalated.

"With the war between Israel and Hamas and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union (EU)," European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson cautioned ahead of a meeting of EU home affairs ministers earlier this month.

Spain's Home Affairs Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska, whose government holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU from July to December, said, "In an especially delicate international context, the situation in the Middle East could sharpen tensions, heighten polarization and fuel terrorism."

Their warnings came following security incidents in the bloc, including a radical Islamist fatally stabbing a German-Filipino tourist near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, on Dec. 2, and the arrest of two teenagers -- one of whom called for a "holy war" against the West on social media -- in Cologne, Germany, suspected of planning an attack on a Christmas market or synagogue.

In light of Europe's history of terrorist attacks during the Christmas season, the security worries have a leg to stand on.

In 2016, a Tunisian male, reportedly pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12. In December 2018, a 29-year-old male armed with a firearm and a knife attacked the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, killing five. The incident was later claimed by the ISIL. Austrian authorities thwarted an ISIL-inspired bomb attack on a Christmas market in Vienna in 2019.

(IANS)

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