‘Direct Ties to Senior Officials’: German Police Charge Members of Suspected Hamas Cell

Latest Developments

• Four Hamas Members Charged in Germany: German prosecutors announced charges against four men on November 26 suspected of being operatives of the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group and plotting terrorist attacks on European soil. The members of the cell — two of whom were born in Lebanon, one of whom has Egyptian citizenship, and a fourth who is a Dutch national — were arrested by German and Dutch police on December 14.

• High-Ranking Operatives Who Managed Weapons Caches For Attacks in Europe: Prosecutors said that the four men, all with residency in Europe, “worked as foreign operators for Hamas for years. They held important positions within the organization with direct ties to senior officials in the military wing.” The suspects maintained weapons caches in Europe, keeping them ready for use in Hamas attacks against Jewish, American, and international targets. According to prosecutors, the Hamas cell considered the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, the U.S. air base in Ramstein, and the area near Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport — which is used for trade fairs and other events — as possible targets.

• Stored Weapons in Bulgaria, Denmark, and Poland: One of the suspects, identified as Ibrahim El-R., maintained a weapons storage site in Bulgaria since 2019. The site contained a Kalashnikov assault rifle and ammunition. In mid-2019, El-R. “cleared out” a weapons cache in Denmark, bringing a pistol from the cache with him into Germany. Between June and December 2023, all four of the suspects, who also include Abdelhamid al-A., Mohamed B., and Nazih R., traveled from Germany to Poland in an unsuccessful effort to locate a Hamas weapons cache.

FDD Expert Response

“These charges leave no doubt that Hamas poses a threat to Europe, particularly to its Jewish communities and to visiting Israeli citizens. However, after the antisemitic violence directed against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam earlier this month, we need to remember that bombings and gun attacks are not the only terror methods at Hamas’s disposal. It can inspire and whip up antisemitic and anti-Zionist hysteria in Europe, already a receptive environment, leading to violence on the streets. Taken together, that presents an unprecedented challenge to all branches of law enforcement.” — Ben Cohen, FDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Manager

“The prosecution of Hamas members who’ve plotted terrorist attacks in Europe highlights that the Islamist group poses a threat beyond Israel’s borders. While Hamas often presents itself as a freedom-fighting organization, this portrayal is misleading. The actions of these so-called freedom fighters reveal their true nature as a terrorist organization as demonstrated by their involvement in clandestine schemes targeting Jewish and American interests in Europe. These prosecutions and other acts by Hamas underscore the need to recognize the broader implications of the group’s activities and the dangers they pose to global security.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal