According to the National Coordinator for Counter-terrorism and Security (NCTV) Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, people do not have to fear a possible attack now that the terrorist threat level has increased. “We can go anywhere,” he said in the talk show Op1, but citizens must be alert.
According to him, the reason for raising the threat level from 3 (significant) to 4 (substantial), the second highest level, is a summation. It is a combination of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Quran burnings in several countries, and calls for attacks by jihadist organizations. Aalbersberg said on Op1 that since October, Germany, Belgium, and France, among others, have had attacks “by loners or arrests that have prevented attacks with networks in the Netherlands.”
According to the NCTV, this does not mean that people will now see soldiers on the street. However, local authorities must, together with the police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM), determine for each event what additional measures need to be taken.