‘Hamas Members’ Arrested in Germany, Denmark, Netherlands Over Suspected Plot to Attack Jewish Community in Europe

07 December 2023, North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne: A banner with the inscription "Men
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Oliver JJ Lane

A plot to unearth a buried Hamas weapons cache in Germany and launch terror attacks against the European Jewish community has ended in seven arrests across the continent, Mossad says.

Seven people have been arrested, security services including Mossad stated on Thursday afternoon, with three in Germany, three in Denmark, and one in the Netherlands taken into custody.

Media in Germany and Mossad treat the arrests as linked and as part of a plot to attack Jewish communities in Europe, while the Danish government is more circumspect, refusing to confirm or deny whether their arrests are definately linked to those in Germany. Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard refused to confirm or deny those arrested by Danish police were definitely linked to Hamas, speaking instead of a criminal gang and a conspiracy to attack Jewish people, reports Berlingske.

German newspaper Die Welt meanwhile reports national intelligence services believe Islamists already in Europe received orders from Hamas leaders in Lebanon to dig up an “underground cache” of weapons “the terrorist organisation had set up in the past”. According to the allegations, the would-be terrorists launched several expeditions intending to re-discover the buried weapons, intending to bring them back to Berlin ready for an operation.

It appears the weapons cache was never found, and the German police are still seeking it themselves. German authorities are reported to have said the arrested men were known longstanding Hamas members who had been under surveillance since last year, and who are thought to have participated in Hamas operations “abroad” before.

Some of those arrested have been named, including Lebanese citizens Abdelhamid Al A. and Ibrahim El-R., Egyptian Mohamed B. and Dutch citizen Nazih R.

Israel’s intelligence service Mossad said in a statement Thursday that the Hamas arrests in Europe came after an “accelerated and comprehensive intelligence investigation”.

The goal of the Hamas plot was “to kill innocent civilians on European soil… to attack Israeli, Jewish and Western targets at any price”, they said.

Deutsche Welle reports Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen spoke on the arrests from the European Council meeting in Brussels today, saying the news of the plot was “extremely serious”. She remarked: “It is of course — in relation to Israel and Gaza — completely unacceptable for someone to bring a conflict elsewhere in the world into Danish society.

“For a number of years now, we have seen that there are people living in Denmark who do not wish us well… who are against our freedom and who are against Danish society, with all that it entails.”

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