German officials said Thursday they arrested four alleged members of Hamas who were suspected of plotting to carry out acts of terror against Jewish people and Jewish institutions in Europe.
The announcement came as Danish officials announced the arrests of three people in coordinated actions across Denmark, and another detained in the Netherlands. They were arrested on suspicion of plotting to carry out “an act of terror,” but authorities did not specify if it was connected to the German arrests.
In Germany, law enforcement agents executed search warrants against three individuals, two of whom were arrested in Berlin and another by Dutch police in Rotterdam. A fourth individual was placed under “provisional arrest” and will appear Friday before a judge, who will decide whether to issue a formal arrest warrant, the press release said.
The four individuals “have been longstanding members of Hamas and have participated in Hamas operations abroad,” the German government alleged in a press release, referring to the U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Hamas, which governs Gaza. The militant group also carried out attacks resulting in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7.
German officials alleged that, by the spring of 2023, after receiving orders from Hamas leaders in Lebanon, one of the suspects began searching for an underground weapons cache in Europe that Hamas had created in the past “in a conspiratorial manner.”
“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,” the officials alleged, adding that the others repeatedly traveled from Berlin to look for the weapons. The individual placed on “provisional arrest” was “providing assistance.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Denmark had arrested seven members of Hamas, which is contrary to the numbers provided by the governments of Denmark and Germany.
In Denmark, officials acknowledged their arrests had “threads abroad” and were “related to criminal gangs,” singling out the predominantly immigrant gang Loyal to Familia, The Associated Press reported. Flemming Drejer, operative head of Denmark’s Security and Intelligence Service, said Danish police had “a special focus” on Jewish institutions in their investigation but did not elaborate.
”Persons abroad have been charged,” Drejer said, adding at a press conference that the arrests were “carried out in close collaboration with our foreign partners” and that those arrested were part of “a network.”
German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “The @GBA_b_BGH, in cooperation with Dutch authorities, today arrested four members of Hamas who were planning attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe. My thanks go to everyone involved.”
“We must do everything we can to ensure that Jews in our country do not have to fear for their safety again. And our security and law enforcement authorities are working hard on it,” he added.