Hamas Terror Ring Busted in Germany and Netherlands

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A cross-border Hamas plot was busted after authorities in Germany and the Netherlands arrested four men suspected of being part of the terror ring. German prosecutors said the plot was meant to obtain weapons to target Jewish institutions all over Europe.

The office of Germany’s federal prosecutor said three men were detained in Berlin while the fourth was arrested in Rotterdam on December 14th. They were described as “longstanding members of Hamas” who had connections with the terrorist group’s military wing and “have participated in Hamas operations abroad.”

The German authorities gave the first names and initials of the surnames of the four arrested: Abdelhamid Al A, born in Lebanon, Mohamed B, an Egyptian national, Nazih R, a 57-year-old Dutch national, and Ibrahim El-R, born in Lebanon.

One of the suspects, Abdelhamid Al A, was accused by the federal 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 prosecutor’s office also added that the weapons cache had been “created in the past in a conspiratorial manner” by Hamas, further noting that “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.”

During Hamas’s deadly assault against Israel last October, three of the four men also “traveled repeatedly from Berlin to look for the weapons,” with the fourth man accused of assisting, the prosecutor’s office said. 

The three men arrested in Germany were brought before a judge on December 15th, who would have also decided in the case of Ibrahim El-R whether to issue a full arrest warrant. The German federal prosecutor accuses them of being part of a foreign terrorist group.

One of the Hamas leaders they were reportedly linked to was Khalil Hamed al-Kharraz, who served as the second in command at the Izz ad-Din al-Qassem brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He was killed in late November after Israel conducted bombings in southern Lebanon.

Although the initial account suggested that any planned terror plot was not particularly advanced, the arrests came after European counter-terror officials warned that attacks could increase as a consequence of the war between Israel and Hamas, which started after the radical Islamic group launched a surprise attack against Israel that saw 1,200 Israelis killed and hundreds taken hostage.

Aside from the four terror suspects arrested in Germany and the Netherlands, three others were also arrested in Denmark on separate terrorism offenses, with the country’s politicians indicating they were also related to Hamas. Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the threat was “as serious as it gets.”

Authorities in Denmark said their investigation unraveled “a network of people has been preparing a terrorist act” that ran across international borders and involved criminal gangs. Nevertheless, officers later clarified the arrests in Denmark and Germany were not directly related.

Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, said Danish authorities “arrested seven terrorists acting on behalf of the Hamas terrorist organization” and “thwarted an attack, the goal of which was to kill innocent civilians on European soil,” accusing the group of striving to expand its activities into Europe.

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