European authorities arrest suspects with alleged ties to Hamas

Danish police arrested suspects who were allegedly working with Hamas as part of a plot to kill Jews in Europe, with the case coming on the heels of authorities in the Netherlands and Germany arresting alleged Hamas members for plotting similar attacks.

The recent reports of Hamas operatives planning to kill European civilians follows the terror group’s Oct. 7 onslaught in southern Israel, which led to the deaths of at least 1,200 people and the abduction of around 240 others. Hamas outlined its goals in a 1988 charter, which called for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. 

As CBS News reported Friday, a prosecutor confirmed that authorities in Denmark had two people in custody and were investigating four others in a terrorism investigation. The two suspects in custody will remain in pretrial detention until Jan. 9, but the outlet could not confirm the whereabouts of the four other suspects.

Denmark’s foreign intelligence service said Thursday in an annual assessment that “the war between Israel and Hamas has once again shown that unresolved conflicts in Europe’s immediate area can escalate rapidly and create widespread regional instability,” the outlet reported.

Flemming Drejer, the operative head of Denmark’s Security and Intelligence Service, said during a news conference that police had “a special focus” on Jewish institutions and that authorities charged “persons abroad.”

He added that the people arrested were part of “a network,” and the suspects’ arrests were conducted in collaboration with foreign partners.

Drejer could not provide further information about the case, saying that the suspects would face a custody hearing within 24 hours behind “double closed doors.”

While authorities in Denmark did not confirm a link between the suspects and Hamas, a joint Thursday statement from Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the Shin Bet security service said the individuals arrested by law enforcement agencies in Denmark were acting on behalf of Hamas.

The joint statement added that their arrests “thwarted an attack, the goal of which was to kill innocent civilians on European soil.” 

The spy agency and security service said that, in recent years, Hamas has worked to expand its operational capacities to attack more Israelis, Jews and Western targets, an effort that has only grown since its Oct. 7 assault against Israel. 

“The Hamas terrorist organization has been working relentlessly and exhaustively to expand its lethal operations to Europe, and thereby constitute a threat to the domestic security of these countries,” the statement released by the Israel Prime Minister’s Office reads. “The Mossad and the ISA will continue to combine forces and capabilities with their partners in the country and around the world in order to thwart Hamas’s intentions and eliminate its capabilities.” 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday while attending a European Union summit in Brussels that the situation is “extremely serious.” 

“It is, of course, completely unacceptable in relation to Israel and Gaza, that there is someone who takes a conflict somewhere else in the world into Danish society,” she said.

In Germany, authorities arrested two men in Berlin and one in Rotterdam, while another was detained in Berlin, a federal prosecutor told CBS News. The outlet also reported that police arrested a 57-year-old Dutch man in Rotterdam based on a request from German authorities.

According to CBS News, the four suspects detained in Germany are Abdelhamid Al A., born in Lebanon; Egyptian national Mohamed B.; Dutch national Nazih R. and Ibrahim El-R.

Authorities believe that three of the men “have been longstanding members of Hamas and have participated in Hamas operations abroad,” adding that the suspects were “closely linked to the military branch’s leadership” of Hamas. 

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