Eight people, suspected of being linked to Hamas and of preparing terrorist attacks, were arrested on Thursday, December 14, in Europe, during two separate raids carried out in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Three people were arrested in Denmark and another in the Netherlands on Thursday to thwart a planned terrorist attack, Danish police and intelligence services said, with Israel saying the suspects arrested in Denmark were linked to Hamas.
The German federal prosecutor's office, responsible for terrorism cases, for its part announced the arrest of four alleged members of Hamas, including one in the Netherlands, suspected of having planned "possible attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe". The four men, suspected of being long-time members of the Islamist movement, would have been responsible for gathering weapons in Berlin in preparation for possible attacks.
Danish intelligence services stressed that there was no direct link between the arrests announced by Germany and those made in Denmark.
“No direct link” between the two raids
“There is no direct link between the terrorist arrests made in Denmark and the case involving people affiliated with Hamas arrested in Germany. The person referred to in the press as a 57-year-old man arrested in the Netherlands has no connection with the Danish case and is not the same as the person referred to [by Danish authorities] arrested in the Netherlands in the 'Danish affair,' Danish intelligence services wrote in a statement. “There are foreign links in this case, but we are only at the beginning of the investigation and we have not yet determined what the foreign links are between the Danish case. »
At a midday press conference, authorities in the Scandinavian country said the arrests concerned “a group that was preparing an act of terrorism.” “There are links with foreign countries” and organized crime, said the intelligence services’ director of operations, Flemming Drejer. No information has been communicated on a possible target of a terrorist attack.
An official statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a few hours later that the suspects arrested in Denmark were affiliated with Hamas. “Security and police services in Denmark have arrested seven terrorists acting on behalf of the terrorist organization Hamas, foiling an attack whose aim was to kill innocent civilians on European soil,” the statement said, while the Danish authorities have only reported three arrests in Denmark and one in the Netherlands.
Tensions in Denmark and Sweden around the Koran
The Danish police, for their part, announced that they would strengthen their presence in Copenhagen, but that the Danish capital remained “safe”. The Jewish community, however, canceled a public Hanukkah celebration, the Danish press reported.
For Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, this dragnet “shows the situation we find ourselves in in Denmark”. It has been “several years since we have been able to see that there are people who live in Denmark and who do not wish us well, who are against our democracy, our freedom and who are against Danish society,” he said. -she declared. Intelligence services consider the terrorist threat “critical,” placing it at level four out of five.
Denmark and Sweden recently sparked a wave of anger among Muslim countries after desecration of the Koran on their soil. Denmark has since legislated to ban the burning of Islam's holy book, arguing it was to protect national security. In Iraq, for example, hundreds of supporters of the influential religious leader Moqtada Al-Sadr attempted to march towards the Danish embassy in Baghdad at the end of July during a demonstration.
In Denmark, two attacks took place in 2015 in Copenhagen, one targeted a cultural center, where a debate on freedom of expression was taking place, and the other targeted the main synagogue in the capital of that city. Scandinavian country before being shot dead by police.
