German prosecutors said on Wednesday they have arrested a suspected Hamas member accused of procuring weapons that they assume were intended for attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions.
The suspect was arrested on the motorway as he entered Germany from the Czech Republic, the federal public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe said.
He is to be brought before an investigating judge in Karlsruhe, who will decide whether he is to be remanded in custody.
Prosecutors accuse the Lebanese-born suspect of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
In August, he allegedly procured a fully automatic rifle, eight pistols and over 600 rounds of ammunition in Germany. He is then believed to have transported them to Berlin to pass them to another suspected Hamas member who was already in pre-trial detention.
The weapons and ammunition were seized at the time of the arrest.
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The Danish police also searched premises belonging to the man and to another suspect in Copenhagen and the surrounding area, prosecutors said.
Last month, German prosecutors arrested three suspected Hamas members in Berlin, who are in pre-trial detention.
The three suspects, including a naturalized Lebanese-born man and a naturalized Syrian-born man, are accused of having procured firearms and ammunition since at least the summer of 2025.
“The weapons were to be used by Hamas for assassinations targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany,” prosecutors said. However, there was apparently no concrete plan for an attack.
In early November, a weapons cache was found in Vienna linked to the three suspects arrested in Berlin. Austria’s DSN domestic intelligence agency said five handguns and 10 magazines were seized.
“The weapons cache is attributed to structures of the terrorist organization Hamas operating abroad,” the DSN said.
Last week, another man was arrested in London who is alleged to have transported weapons to Vienna as a member of Hamas. According to the DSN, the man is a 39-year-old British citizen. He is to be extradited to Germany.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage. The onslaught sparked the Gaza war.
(dpa)
