Four suspected Hamas members detained in Germany

OThe four men, suspected of being long-time members of the Islamist movement, were allegedly tasked with collecting weapons in Berlin with a view to possible attacks, the German Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

The arrests of Abdelhamid Al A. and Ibrahim El-R., both born in Lebanon, and the Egyptian Mohammed B. were carried out by federal police agents in Berlin, while that of Nazih R., a Dutch national, took place in Rotterdam , under a European arrest warrant.

The German Public Prosecutor’s Office did not reveal their surnames.

“From spring 2023 at the latest, Abdelhamid Al A. was tasked with locating, on behalf of Hamas, a clandestine weapons depot in Europe, which the organization had hidden in the past,” explained the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

He received instructions from senior Hamas officials based in Lebanon.

“The weapons were to be transferred to Berlin and made available for possible attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe. In October 2023, Abdelhamid Al A., Mohamed B. and Nazih R. left Berlin several times in search of the weapons. […] They were supported in their efforts by Ibrahim El-R”, said the prosecutor.

Earlier in the day, Danish police and intelligence services (PET) announced the arrest of four people, three in Denmark and one in the Netherlands, in connection with a terrorist attack project.

In a statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged that those detained in Denmark and the Netherlands, bringing the number from four to seven, are linked to Hamas and accused them of also planning a terrorist attack.

“The Danish security and police services arrested seven terrorists acting on behalf of the terrorist organization Hamas, foiling an attack aimed at killing innocent civilians on European soil,” the Tel Aviv Government said.

“In recent years, but especially since the deadly October 7 attack, Hamas has sought to expand its operational capabilities around the world, particularly in Europe, to achieve its goal of attacking Israeli, Jewish and Western targets at any cost “, says the statement.

“We congratulate our security and police partners in Denmark on the success of their counter-terrorism operation”, which “exposes the expansion of Hamas’ infrastructure in Europe”, it adds.

At a press conference in Copenhagen, Flemming Drejer, PET’s director of operations, said other people abroad were also involved, but did not elaborate or establish any link with the attack on German soil.

Germany reinforced security measures around Jewish buildings following the unexpected and unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli territory, on October 7, which caused around 1,200 deaths, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, in Gaza, more than 18,700 Palestinians, the vast majority of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the Israeli army’s retaliatory bombings of the enclave.

At the beginning of November, Germany banned on its territory activities linked to Hamas and Samidoun, a network that claims to support Palestinian prisoners and that allegedly distributed cakes in Berlin to celebrate “the victory of the resistance” after the 7 September attack. of October.

Hamas, officially considered a “terrorist” organization since 2003 by the European Union (EU), the USA and Israel, has, according to the latest official data, around 450 members in Germany.

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