Hamas doing what it loves to do...
Hamas plot to attack Jews across Europe is foiled by police
Story by James Rothwell, Jorg Luyken, Sophia Yan, Robert Mendick • 4h
A Hamas plot to kill Jews in Europe was foiled by German and Danish police who uncovered the terrorist group’s alarming change of tactics.
Three people were arrested in Germany, three in Denmark and one in the Netherlands with the Danish prime minister describing the plot as being “as serious as it gets”.
The Hamas operatives were under orders to bring a cache of weapons from an undisclosed location in Europe to Berlin to attack Jewish institutions, German prosecutors said.
Germany has said that four of the seven suspects in the alleged plot are members of Hamas, the proscribed terrorist group which controls the Gaza Strip and which launched the unprecedented October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
The suspects were allegedly planning attacks across Europe, officials said, without giving further details. Israeli officials have suggested all the arrests were linked to a single, cross-border European terror plot.
There was no immediate suggestion of a British link to the Hamas plot. But the Community Security Trust (CST), the body that provides security advice and protection to synagogues, Jewish schools and other Jewish sites, said the news had worrying implications for the UK.
British and Western intelligence agencies have previously warned that the war in Israel has increased the risk of attacks on Jews in Europe.
A CST spokesman said: “Historically, Hamas has never shown interest in carrying out terrorist attacks outside of Israel. There have been one or two plots over the years linked to them but nothing on a significant scale.
“But if this is a shift in policy for Hamas to carry out attacks on Jewish communities outside the region, in line with Iran and Hezbollah, that would be extremely concerning. It represents a significant shift in the threat posed to Jewish communities. There is a big concern if Hamas HQ is ordering Hamas people in Europe to carry out an attack.”
Three of the suspects arrested in Berlin are citizens of Egypt and Lebanon according to German prosecutors. The three suspects arrested in Denmark are to be charged with terror offences, according to Danish police chief inspector Flemming Drejer.
Europe has been on high alert for Hamas-linked attacks since the terror group launched the October 7 massacre.
The arrested suspects appear to have additional links with criminal gangs in Europe according to Danish police.
Security patrols around Jewish sites in Denmark are being stepped up in response to the foiled plot as well as police patrols in Copenhagen.
The three men arrested in Berlin, and another held in the Netherlands, were preparing a weapons cache that would be “kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe”, they said.
Bild, the German tabloid, named the suspects held in Berlin as Lebanese-born Abdelhamid Al A, Egyptian citizen Mohamed B and Lebanese-born Ibrahim El-R. German authorities typically withhold the surnames of criminal and terror suspects.
“The three men have close ties to senior leaders of Hamas’s military wing,” Bild reported, citing sources close to the investigation.
No later than early 2023, Hamas leaders in Lebanon had 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.
Abdelhamid Al A, Mohamed B and another suspect, 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,” Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said on Thursday night.
Five apartments and a restaurant in Berlin were searched by police as part of the investigation. German prosecutors said that the investigation into the three suspects arrested there had been launched several months before the October 7 Hamas massacre.
The three suspects arrested in Denmark are due to appear at a closed court session on Friday.
Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, said the plotters were trying to expand the Hamas-Israel conflict into Europe.
“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 at a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday.
The Israeli prime minister’s office suggested that Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, played a role in alerting the authorities, as well as Shin Bet, its domestic security service.
“The Hamas terrorist organisation has been working relentlessly and exhaustively to expand its lethal operations to Europe, and constitutes a threat to the security of these countries,” it said.
“The Mossad and the ISA [Shin Bet] will continue to combine forces and capabilities with their partners in the country and around the world in order to thwart Hamas’s intentions and eliminate its capabilities.”
Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, the head of Danish intelligence, said a spate of burnings of the Koran in both Denmark and neighbouring Sweden has been a factor in the heightened security risk.
On Thursday night, Marco Buschmann, Germany’s federal justice minister, thanked authorities for catching the suspects and vowed to protect Jews in Europe.
“My thanks go to everyone involved who, with this successful investigation, has made their contribution to ensuring that Jews in Europe can continue to live in security and peace,” he said. “We must therefore do everything we can to ensure that Jews in our country do not have to fear for their safety again.”
Increased risk of terrorist attacks
In early December, an EU official warned that there was an increased risk of terrorist attacks over the winter holiday period, as potential fallout from the Israel-Hamas war.
“With the war between Israel and Hamas, and the polarisation it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union,” said Ylva Johansson, the EU home affairs commissioner.
The Israeli government has also warned that attacks could be on the rise since war broke out, advising its citizens to reconsider travel abroad.
Just a few days ago, Israel said the Mossad had worked with authorities in Cyprus to thwart an Iranian-ordered plan to attack Israeli and Jewish targets on the island. Many Israelis have decamped to Cyprus since the outbreak of war.
Last month, Israeli authorities said they had cooperated with Brazil, which resulted in the arrest of two individuals on suspicion of terrorism and links to Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based armed group that is an ally of Hamas.
Also on Thursday, the US and UK announced sanctions on eight Iran-linked individuals, amid concerns that the Tehran regime is financing Hamas activities in the West.
They include Esmail Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, the military intelligence wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and four Quds Force operatives based in the Palestinian territories.
Visit The Telegraph
Hamas plot to attack Jews across Europe is foiled by police
Story by James Rothwell, Jorg Luyken, Sophia Yan, Robert Mendick • 4h
A Hamas plot to kill Jews in Europe was foiled by German and Danish police who uncovered the terrorist group’s alarming change of tactics.
Three people were arrested in Germany, three in Denmark and one in the Netherlands with the Danish prime minister describing the plot as being “as serious as it gets”.
The Hamas operatives were under orders to bring a cache of weapons from an undisclosed location in Europe to Berlin to attack Jewish institutions, German prosecutors said.
Germany has said that four of the seven suspects in the alleged plot are members of Hamas, the proscribed terrorist group which controls the Gaza Strip and which launched the unprecedented October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
The suspects were allegedly planning attacks across Europe, officials said, without giving further details. Israeli officials have suggested all the arrests were linked to a single, cross-border European terror plot.
There was no immediate suggestion of a British link to the Hamas plot. But the Community Security Trust (CST), the body that provides security advice and protection to synagogues, Jewish schools and other Jewish sites, said the news had worrying implications for the UK.
British and Western intelligence agencies have previously warned that the war in Israel has increased the risk of attacks on Jews in Europe.
A CST spokesman said: “Historically, Hamas has never shown interest in carrying out terrorist attacks outside of Israel. There have been one or two plots over the years linked to them but nothing on a significant scale.
“But if this is a shift in policy for Hamas to carry out attacks on Jewish communities outside the region, in line with Iran and Hezbollah, that would be extremely concerning. It represents a significant shift in the threat posed to Jewish communities. There is a big concern if Hamas HQ is ordering Hamas people in Europe to carry out an attack.”
Three of the suspects arrested in Berlin are citizens of Egypt and Lebanon according to German prosecutors. The three suspects arrested in Denmark are to be charged with terror offences, according to Danish police chief inspector Flemming Drejer.
Europe has been on high alert for Hamas-linked attacks since the terror group launched the October 7 massacre.
The arrested suspects appear to have additional links with criminal gangs in Europe according to Danish police.
Security patrols around Jewish sites in Denmark are being stepped up in response to the foiled plot as well as police patrols in Copenhagen.
The three men arrested in Berlin, and another held in the Netherlands, were preparing a weapons cache that would be “kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe”, they said.
Bild, the German tabloid, named the suspects held in Berlin as Lebanese-born Abdelhamid Al A, Egyptian citizen Mohamed B and Lebanese-born Ibrahim El-R. German authorities typically withhold the surnames of criminal and terror suspects.
“The three men have close ties to senior leaders of Hamas’s military wing,” Bild reported, citing sources close to the investigation.
No later than early 2023, Hamas leaders in Lebanon had 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.
Abdelhamid Al A, Mohamed B and another suspect, 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,” Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said on Thursday night.
Five apartments and a restaurant in Berlin were searched by police as part of the investigation. German prosecutors said that the investigation into the three suspects arrested there had been launched several months before the October 7 Hamas massacre.
The three suspects arrested in Denmark are due to appear at a closed court session on Friday.
Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, said the plotters were trying to expand the Hamas-Israel conflict into Europe.
“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 at a meeting with EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday.
The Israeli prime minister’s office suggested that Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, played a role in alerting the authorities, as well as Shin Bet, its domestic security service.
“The Hamas terrorist organisation has been working relentlessly and exhaustively to expand its lethal operations to Europe, and constitutes a threat to the security of these countries,” it said.
“The Mossad and the ISA [Shin Bet] will continue to combine forces and capabilities with their partners in the country and around the world in order to thwart Hamas’s intentions and eliminate its capabilities.”
Anja Dalgaard-Nielsen, the head of Danish intelligence, said a spate of burnings of the Koran in both Denmark and neighbouring Sweden has been a factor in the heightened security risk.
On Thursday night, Marco Buschmann, Germany’s federal justice minister, thanked authorities for catching the suspects and vowed to protect Jews in Europe.
“My thanks go to everyone involved who, with this successful investigation, has made their contribution to ensuring that Jews in Europe can continue to live in security and peace,” he said. “We must therefore do everything we can to ensure that Jews in our country do not have to fear for their safety again.”
Increased risk of terrorist attacks
In early December, an EU official warned that there was an increased risk of terrorist attacks over the winter holiday period, as potential fallout from the Israel-Hamas war.
“With the war between Israel and Hamas, and the polarisation it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union,” said Ylva Johansson, the EU home affairs commissioner.
The Israeli government has also warned that attacks could be on the rise since war broke out, advising its citizens to reconsider travel abroad.
Just a few days ago, Israel said the Mossad had worked with authorities in Cyprus to thwart an Iranian-ordered plan to attack Israeli and Jewish targets on the island. Many Israelis have decamped to Cyprus since the outbreak of war.
Last month, Israeli authorities said they had cooperated with Brazil, which resulted in the arrest of two individuals on suspicion of terrorism and links to Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based armed group that is an ally of Hamas.
Also on Thursday, the US and UK announced sanctions on eight Iran-linked individuals, amid concerns that the Tehran regime is financing Hamas activities in the West.
They include Esmail Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, the military intelligence wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and four Quds Force operatives based in the Palestinian territories.
Visit The Telegraph
