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A major investigation by Switzerland’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung reveals that Hamas spent years building an operational terrorist network across Europe, including weapons caches, bomb-making capabilities and sleeper cells preparing attacks against Jewish, Israeli and Western targets.
Investigators believe the network had even selected October 7, 2025, the second anniversary of the Hamas massacre in Israel, as the planned date for an attack. The latest arrests began in Greece and Cyprus. Greek special forces detained a 37-year-old Egyptian man of Palestinian origin, identified by some local media as Motasem, after investigators reportedly found chemicals, a precision scale and equipment that could be used to manufacture explosives in his Athens apartment. Authorities believe the Greek-Cypriot cell was preparing to attack an Israeli cruise ship that regularly docks in Greece.
The suspect and another Palestinian traveled through Switzerland, Qatar and Indonesia to Malaysia in 2025, where investigators believe they received bomb-making training. The investigation connects the plot to a wider network spanning Germany, Austria, Denmark, Britain, Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece.
Since October 2025, Germany’s federal prosecutor has ordered the arrests of nine men in Germany and abroad. The network transported at least 13 handguns, an AK-47 and more than 900 rounds of ammunition through Scandinavia, Germany and Austria. Five Glock pistols were moved from Denmark through Berlin to Vienna, where Austrian intelligence later discovered a weapons cache.
German investigators say Hamas had been creating weapons depots in Europe since at least 2019. In December 2023, Bulgarian police uncovered a suitcase containing weapons and ammunition buried in woodland near Plovdiv after German authorities found photographs of the cache on a suspect’s phone.
In February 2023, eight months before the October 7 massacre, the German cell received orders from Hamas officials in Lebanon to prepare attacks against Jewish, Israeli or American targets. Suspects reportedly surveilled Ramstein Air Base, the Israeli Embassy in Berlin and Tempelhofer Feld. Investigators believe the operation was directed by Hamas commanders in Lebanon, including senior military figure Khalil al-Kharraz, who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2023.
Several members of the German cell were filmed attending his funeral in Lebanon. The investigation concludes that Hamas may no longer view Europe merely as a fundraising and logistical base, but as a potential battlefield for attacks designed to bring the Middle East conflict directly onto European soil.
canisgallicus 