At least seven terror suspects arrested in Europe were planning to carry out an operation on behalf of Hamas, according to Israeli intelligence.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency said Danish agencies had exposed “Hamas infrastructure on European soil,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Earlier today, at least three people were arrested in Denmark and one in the Netherlands on suspicion of plotting to carry out “an act of terror,” Danish police said Thursday.
The arrests come just one day after a senior Hamas official called for “violent acts” against Americans and Britons around the globe.
The statement from the Israeli PM’s Office read: “Following an accelerated and comprehensive intelligence investigation, Danish security and law enforcement agencies arrested 7 terrorists acting on behalf of the Hamas terrorist organisation and thwarted an attack, the goal of which was to kill innocent civilians on European soil.”
It warned that Hamas has “striven to expand its operational capabilities around the world, especially in Europe” to attack “Israeli, Jewish and Western targets at any price”.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen spoke about the arrests to reporters at the European Union Summit in Brussels.
She said: “This is extremely serious…It is of course, completely unacceptable in relation to Israel and Gaza, that there is someone who takes a conflict somewhere else in the world into Danish society.”
In the Netherlands, broadcaster NOS reported that a 57-year-old Dutch man was arrested in Rotterdam based on a request from German authorities.
Earlier this month, the European Union’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, warned that Europe faced a “huge risk of terrorist attacks” over the Christmas holiday period due to the fallout from the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In July 2022, a gunman at the huge Field’s shopping center on the outskirts of Copenhagen killed three people and injured seven. The man, who believed the victims were zombies, was charged with murder and attempted murder and ultimately sentenced in July to detention in a secure medical facility.
In 2015, a 22-year-old Danish Muslim gunman killed two people and wounded five others at a free speech event and a synagogue in Copenhagen.
The news comes amid fierce street-to-street fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. At least nine Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush, marking one of the deadliest single attacks that Palestinian militants have carried out since the ground invasion of Gaza began, Israel’s military said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with Israel’s Gaza offensive “until the end,” rejecting international pressure for a cease-fire.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas began when the terror organisation launched a massive surprise attack on Israel on October 7. The unprecedented attack saw around 1,200 Israelis – mainly civilians – killed while another 240 or so people were taken hostage.
Israel responded with massive amounts of airstrikes in Gaza before launching a ground invasion. Palestinian health authorities in the Hamas-run strip claim more than 18,700 people have been killed there since the war began. Israel disputes that number.
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