A German judge ordered pretrial detention for three suspected Hamas operatives who allegedly plotted attacks on Jewish targets in Germany, prosecutors said Thursday.
Prosecutors suspect the three men of membership in Hamas and procuring firearms and ammunition to be used in attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions.
“[The men] were brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice who issued arrest warrants and ordered their remand in custody,” said the prosecutor’s office in a statement.
The three were arrested on Wednesday at a time of heightened security around Jewish buildings, a week before the second anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel.
In Britain, two people were killed on Thursday morning in an attack at a Manchester synagogue over Yom Kippur. The assailant was later shot dead by law enforcement, police said.
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Hamas on Wednesday denied links to the three suspects in Germany, calling the allegations unfounded and saying its struggle is “confined to opposing Israeli occupation in Palestine.”
Members of an elite police unit patrol near the the Beth Zion Synagogue ahead of the commemoration ceremony for the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht in Berlin, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023 (John MacDougall, Pool via AP)
The three — identified in line with German privacy laws only as German citizens Abed Al G., Ahmad I. and Wael F. M., Lebanese-born German citizen — were arrested in Berlin.
Anti-terrorism investigators had been surveilling the suspects for some time before operational forces nabbed them at a weapons handover in the German capital.
Police intervened in the exchange and discovered arms, including an AK-47 assault rifle, a Glock pistol and large amounts of ammunition, the prosecutor’s office said.
Forensic technicians are examining the arsenal and searches have also taken place in the eastern city of Leipzig, where one of the suspects lives. Authorities also conducted a search in Oberhausen in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the spokesperson added.
The arrests were announced as Hamas has yet to respond to a 20-point plan by US President Donald Trump — which includes disarmament of the terrorist group — to end the war and free the hostages held in Gaza.
Hamas, which has been running Gaza and is backed by Iran, is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and a number of other countries including the United States.
In February, four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin, in what prosecutors described as the first court case against Hamas terrorists in Germany.
Police in many European countries have been on heightened alert since the October 7 attack. Some forces have boosted security and patrols against possible attacks against Jewish or Israeli sites in recent months amid a spike of antisemitic violence on the continent and beyond.
Germany in particular has kept security tight at synagogues and other Jewish institutions and is known to be one Israel’s strongest allies, largely due to the legacy of the Holocaust.
Berlin notably did not join France, Britain and several other Western countries last month in recognizing a Palestinian state — a move that both Israel and the Trump administration denounced as a reward for Hamas’s October 7 attack that started the ongoing Gaza war.
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