Danish and German Authorities Arrest Terror Suspects Plotting Attacks on Jews in Europe
Denmark and Germany announced Thursday the arrests of several terror suspects, including alleged Hamas members, suspected of plotting attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in Europe over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The announcements were issued separately and it was unclear how the arrests were connected and if they were the result of coordinated actions, or even possibly one operation spanning the continent.
The Danish police said three people were arrested across Denmark while a fourth person was detained in the Netherlands on suspicion of plotting to carry out “an act of terror.” Officials in Copenhagen did not provide any details beyond saying the arrests had “threads abroad” and were “related to criminal gangs,” singling out the banned, predominantly immigrant gang Loyal to Familia that had long been behind feuds, violence, robberies, extortion, and drug sales in the Danish capital.
Flemming Drejer, the operative head of Denmark’s Security and Intelligence Service, cryptically said police had “a special focus” on Jewish institutions. He said Denmark was not changing its terror threat level, which has been at “serious,” the second-highest level, since 2010.
In the Netherlands, police said a 57-year-old Dutch man was arrested in the city of Rotterdam, based on a request from German authorities. On Tuesday, the Dutch counterterrorism agency raised the country’s threat alert to its second-highest level, saying the possibility of an attack in the country is now “substantial.”
In Germany, authorities said three suspected members of the Palestinian militant Hamas group who were allegedly planning attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe were arrested on Thursday. Two men were arrested in Berlin and one in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, while a fourth suspect was temporarily detained in Berlin, Germany’s federal prosecutor said. Authorities only identified the men by their first names and the first initial of their last name, in line with German privacy rules.
German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann thanked the authorities for the arrests and said that “attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions have also increased in our country in recent weeks” due to the Israel-Hamas war.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office lauded what it said were seven Hamas suspects arrested in Europe, but attributed the arrests to Danish police. The prime minister’s office said Denmark had arrested seven operatives acting on behalf of Hamas and “thwarted an attack aimed at killing innocent citizens on European soil.”
The discrepancies between the Danish, German, and Israeli statements could not immediately be resolved.
The European Union’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, warned earlier this month that Europe faced a “huge risk of terrorist attacks” over the Christmas holiday period due to the fallout from the fighting in Gaza.
Denmark’s foreign intelligence service, known as FE, said Thursday in its annual assessment for 2023 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.”