German federal prosecutors have arrested a Lebanese-born man on suspicion of transporting weapons for an alleged Hamas cell believed to have been preparing attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe. The detainee is the sixth suspect linked by investigators to what they describe as a multinational support network.
The suspect, identified in line with German privacy rules only as Mahmoud Z., was detained on Thursday on a train near Flensburg in northern Germany after crossing the border from Denmark. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor (Generalbundesanwalt, GBA), he is strongly suspected of multiple breaches of the War Weapons Control Act and the German Weapons Act and is accused of helping acquire arms for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the European Union.
Prosecutors allege that in August 2025 Mahmoud Z. collected an automatic rifle, eight pistols and more than 600 rounds of ammunition in the central state of Hesse from another suspect, Borhan El-K. He is then said to have transported the weapons to Berlin and handed them to Wael F. M., a Lebanese-born man already in custody. The firearms were seized when Wael F. M. was arrested in the German capital on 1 October.
The GBA says these activities formed part of preparations for terrorist attacks on “Israeli or Jewish facilities in Germany and Europe”. While specific targets have not been made public, the alleged plot is being treated as linked to Hamas’s foreign operations.
Borhan El-K. was arrested two days before Mahmoud Z., on 12 November, after entering Germany from the Czech Republic via the A17 motorway. He is suspected of membership of a foreign terrorist organisation under sections 129a and 129b of the German Criminal Code and of procuring the same automatic rifle, eight Glock pistols and ammunition that were later passed to Mahmoud Z. for onward transport to Berlin. Danish police subsequently searched premises linked to him and another suspect in and around Copenhagen.
The Berlin weapons seizure on 1 October marked the first major step in the investigation. On that day, police arrested Wael F. M., Abed Al G. and Ahmad I., described by prosecutors as “foreign operatives” for Hamas. An AK-47-type assault rifle, several pistols and a substantial quantity of ammunition were recovered. The three men are accused of involvement in procuring weapons for assassinations targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany.
The network’s alleged reach became clearer in early November when a British national, Mohammed A., was detained in London on a German arrest warrant. German prosecutors say he is suspected of Hamas membership and of acting as a courier for firearms intended for attacks in Europe. According to their statement, he met Abed Al G. twice in Berlin during the summer, received five handguns and ammunition, and transported them to Vienna, where the weapons were stored.
Austria’s domestic intelligence service later discovered a cache consisting of five pistols and ten magazines in a suitcase in a rented storage unit in Vienna. The Austrian interior ministry said the weapons were believed to be linked to Hamas and intended for possible attacks, likely against Israeli or Jewish institutions. The find was part of an investigation coordinated with German and British authorities into what Austria described as a “global terrorist organisation with ties to Hamas”.
Hamas has publicly denied any connection with the suspects arrested in Germany and Austria, calling the allegations of operational links “baseless” and stating that its activities are confined to the Israeli–Palestinian arena. German and Austrian prosecutors, however, maintain that the arms transfers uncovered in Berlin and Vienna were aimed at enabling attacks on Jewish and Israeli sites on European soil.
The latest arrests come against a backdrop of heightened security around Jewish institutions across Europe since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Germany, Austria and other EU member states have increased police protection for synagogues, schools and community centres amid a documented rise in antisemitic incidents.
In February 2025, four alleged Hamas members went on trial in Berlin in a separate case, accused of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe and of stockpiling weapons in Germany. Prosecutors in that case also argued that weapons procurement in the EU formed part of a broader strategy by Hamas to develop operational capabilities beyond the Middle East.
Mahmoud Z. is expected to be brought before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice, who will decide on the implementation of an arrest warrant and pre-trial detention. The other suspects are already in custody pending further proceedings in Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom.
German prosecutors emphasise that the investigation is ongoing and that all suspects are presumed innocent unless and until they are convicted by a court. At the same time, officials in Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen and London are presenting the case as an example of close cross-border cooperation aimed at disrupting networks linked to designated terrorist organisations before any planned attacks can be carried out.
