Mossad foils Hamas terror networks in Europe

Israel worked with several European security agencies to arrest operatives and seize weapons caches.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Mossad announced Wednesday that it had thwarted a Hamas network in Europe that planned terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in several countries.

“Close cooperation between the Mossad and European intelligence and law enforcement services led to the seizure of weapons caches and the arrests of terrorist operatives on the continent,” said the statement by Israel’s equivalent to the CIA.

One raid took place in September in Vienna, where the Austrian Security and Intelligence Service discovered a hoard of pistols and explosive devices.

The Mossad said the subsequent investigation showed that the Austrian terror infrastructure was built by Muhammad Naim, son of Bassem Naim, a senior adviser to Khalil al-Haya, one of Hamas’ five-member leadership council living in Doha.

“The involvement of the organization’s leadership from Qatar in promoting terrorist activity is not being revealed for the first time, although the movement’s senior officials often deny it publicly time and again, as part of their efforts to protect the image of the Hamas organization in the face of international public opinion,” the intelligence agency said.

If Hamas’ denials of promoting terrorism in Europe are true, the Mossad added, then they “can only testify to the leadership’s loss of control over its rebellious activists.”

Germany is another arena of Hamas activism, said the agency, pointing to the arrest there last November of several suspected operatives, including Burhan al-Khatib, a “prominent operative in the [terror] infrastructure.”

Raids also uncovered weapons caches that included assault rifles, handguns and ammunition.

Al-Khatib was detained after being in Turkey, another country the Mossad says it is examining for illegal Hamas activities.

Under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is hostile to Israel, Ankara has hosted top Hamas officials in luxurious residences for years, although it has acted on Israeli intelligence in the past to thwart terrorism.

The Mossad said that since the Hamas-led massacre of nearly 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the organization “has been working even harder to build infrastructure and recruit terrorist cells in Europe and other arenas, similar to the Iranian regime and its proxies.”

The Israeli partnership with European agencies “reflects the growing international understanding” of the threat to their countries, the statement said, and the authorities’ “determination to thwart any Hamas terrorist activity on their soil.”

There are “dozens” of terrorist attacks being planned at any given time against “Israeli, Jewish and innocent targets around the globe” that the Mossad is acting to prevent as part of the agency’s “responsibility to thwart terrorism abroad and its commitment to Israel’s security and defense.”