Four arrested in Europe over alleged cross-border Hamas terrorism plot
Three held in Germany and one in Netherlands over plans for possible attacks on Jewish institutions, prosecutor says
Four people have been arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of being part of a cross-border Hamas terrorism plot that German federal prosecutors said aimed to target Jewish institutions in Europe.
Three others were arrested in Denmark on apparently related terrorism offences, and while police in Copenhagen were more circumspect about the details, the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the threat was “as serious as it gets”.
The office of Germany’s federal prosecutor said three men were detained in Berlin and the fourth in Rotterdam on Thursday and were described as “longstanding members of Hamas” who had links to its military wing and “have participated in Hamas operations abroad”.
One of the group, named only as Abdelhamid Al A, was accused by the prosecutor of having “started searching for an underground weapons cache in Europe no later than spring 2023” on the orders of Hamas leaders based in Lebanon. The cache had been “created in the past in a conspiratorial manner” by Hamas, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon. “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.”
In October, the month of Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel, three of the four men “travelled repeatedly from Berlin to look for the weapons”, the prosecutor continued, with a fourth accused of providing assistance.
The German authorities gave the first names and the initials of the surnames of the four arrested: Abdelhamid Al A, born in Lebanon; Mohamed B, an Egyptian national; Nazih R, a Dutch national who police in the Netherlands said was aged 57; Ibrahim El-R, born in Lebanon.
Danish police said their investigation revealed “a network of people has been preparing a terrorist act” which ran across international borders, according to Flemming Drejer, a police chief superintendent.
At a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels, Frederiksen offered more context. “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,” she said.
Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency said police in Denmark had “arrested seven terrorists acting on behalf of the Hamas terrorist organisation” and had “thwarted an attack, the goal of which was to kill innocent civilians on European soil”.
Colour me highly doubtful.
...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
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