German Police took into custody three
suspected members of the Palestinian group Hamas, accused of making
preparations for an attack against Jewish targets in Europe, said prosecutors.
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”, said German federal prosecutors.
Police arrested Egyptian citizen Mohamed
B and two Lebanese-born men, Abdelhamid Al A and Ibrahim El-R in Berlin.
Additionally, Dutch national Nazih R was
detained by local police in Rotterdam, said the prosecutors.
The four were suspected of being “longstanding
members of Hamas”, the Palestinian group whose unprecedented October 7 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,” said prosecutors.
“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.
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,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
“We will use all legal means against
those who threaten the lives of Jews and the existence of the State of Israel,”
stated Faeser.
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 crossed across the border from the Gaza Strip
and took some 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Aiming to eliminate Hamas, Israel
launched a retaliatory military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than
18,700 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s
Health Ministry.
AFP
