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Suspected Hamas member arrested in Germany

Mark Hallam with AFP, dpa
November 12, 2025

Public prosecutors say a suspected Hamas member was arrested soon after entering the country, on a highway near the border to Czechia.

Symbolic, undated image of a blue light on top of a police vehicle in Berlin, with the city's distinctive television tower visible in the background.
The arrested member of Hamas is suspected of procuring an automatic weapon, eight pistols and more than 600 rounds of ammunition in Berlin in August 2025Image: Seeliger/Imago

Federal police arrested a suspected Hamas member soon after his entry into Germany on the A17 autobahn near the Czech border, prosecutors said on Wednesday. 

The Lebanese-born man is accused of procuring weapons that were supposed to be used for attacks on Israeli or Jewish sites in Germany and Europe, the federal prosecutor's office based in Karlsruhe said. 

The suspect, who was detained on Tuesday, was to be transported to Karlsruhe, where he would appear before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice, who would make a decision on investigative custody.

Prosecutors also said that Danish police in Copenhagen and the vicinity had searched properties of the detained man and another accused individual. 

Hamas memeber suspected of procuring firearms

The man is suspected of procuring an automatic weapon, eight pistols and more than 600 rounds of ammunition in Berlin in August 2025.

He is alleged to have then transported these to another alleged Hamas member who is already in pretrial detention. 

Prosecutors said that the weapons and ammunition were seized during the arrest of his presumed accomplice. 

On October 1 this year, prosecutors in Berlin arrested three alleged Hamas members, accused of procuring weapons for attacks. 

"The weapons were meant to be used for murderous attacks on Israeli or Jewish facitlities in Germany," authorities said at the time, albeit adding the suspects had not formulated a concrete plot. 

Germany arrests three alleged Hamas members

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A weapons cache was recently uncovered in Vienna as part of the same investigations, with Austrian prosecutors saying the cache was thought to be part of "foreign operational structures of the terrorist organization Hamas."

Another man was arrested last week in London, accused of transporting weapons to Vienna and storing them there. 

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko

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