Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TERRORISM

Three arrested in Germany over Hamas attack plot against Jews

German police on Thursday arrested three suspected members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, accused of making preparations for an attack against Jewish targets in Europe, prosecutors said.

Published: 14 December 2023 17:54 CET
Police officer dawn raid Germany
A police officer at a dawn raid in Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Marijan Murat

The three men, along with another suspect arrested in the Netherlands, were said to have tried to gather weapons to be “kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe”, German federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Police arrested Egyptian citizen Mohamed B. and two Lebanese-born men, Abdelhamid Al A. and Ibrahim El-R. in Berlin.

In addition, the Dutch national Nazih R. was detained by local police in Rotterdam, the prosecutors said.

The four were suspected of being “longstanding members of Hamas”, the Palestinian militant group whose unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza.

The group were said to have been “closely linked” to the leadership of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

No later than early 2023, Hamas leaders in Lebanon tasked Abdelhamid Al A. with locating a “depot with weapons in Europe, which the organisation had covertly set up there in the past,” prosecutors said.

“The weapons were due to be taken to Berlin and kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe,” they said.

READ ALSO: Germany conducts raids on homes of Hamas supporters

Abdelhamid Al A., Mohamed B. and Nazih R. “set out from Berlin several times to search for the weapons,” and were aided in their efforts by Ibrahim El-R.

“The protection of Jews is our top priority,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.

“We will use all legal means against those who threaten the lives of Jews and the existence of the State of Israel,” Faeser said.

Germany has warned that the risk of Islamist attacks is higher than it has been for a long time since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Last month, Germany issued a ban on Hamas activities and organisations linked to the group in the wake of the militants’ attack.

Some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed when Hamas stormed across the border from the Gaza Strip and took some 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel subsequently launched a retaliatory military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 18,700 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. 

Around 80 percent of the 2.2 million people in the territory have also been displaced. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

SHOW COMMENTS