Three suspected members of the Palestinian armed group Hamas have been arrested for allegedly planning assaults on Israeli and Jewish establishments in Germany, prosecutors say.
The three males – two of whom are German residents and one among whom is Lebanese-born – are suspected of getting procured firearms and ammunition for the reason that summer time to allegedly be used within the assaults, Germany’s federal prosecutor’s workplace stated.
The boys, named as Abed Al G, Wael F M and Ahmad I, had been arrested in Berlin on Tuesday, the workplace added. Their arrests got here a day earlier than Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Hamas – which controls Gaza and is taken into account a terrorist organisation by the EU – denied any connection to the lads.
The federal prosecutor’s workplace stated in a press release on Wednesday that, through the course of the arrests, “varied weapons, together with an AK 47 assault rifle and a number of other pistols, and a major quantity of ammunition, had been discovered”.
It added: “The weapons had been meant to be used by Hamas in assassination assaults on Israeli or Jewish establishments in Germany.”
Prosecutors in Germany sometimes solely consult with suspects by their first title and an preliminary.
German media report the lads had been arrested after they met for a weapons handover within the capital.
Police searches additionally befell within the cities of Leipzig and Oberhausen across the time of the Berlin arrests, in accordance with newspaper Der Spiegel.
The three have been charged with getting ready a severe act of violence endangering the German state and membership of a overseas terrorist organisation.
The suspects will seem earlier than a federal choose on Thursday, the federal prosecutor stated.
Hamas stated in a press release that the allegations in opposition to it had been “baseless” and aimed to “undermine the German individuals’s sympathy for the Palestinian individuals”.
The group added that it had a coverage of limiting its actions to what it considers Palestinian territory.
The arrests come after 4 Hamas members went on trial in Berlin in February, accused of plotting assaults on Jewish websites in Europe.
