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German Police Chief Voices Concern Over Islamist Terror Threat
Pro-Hamas demonstrators marching in Munich, Germany. Photo: Reuters/Alexander Pohl
The head of Germany’s police service on Wednesday said there was little doubt that four men detained on Dec. 14 were planning terrorist attacks on Jewish targets at the behest of Hamas.
“There is an urgent suspicion that the accused allegedly planned an attack against Jewish institutions in Europe and wanted to collect weapons that they hid in a depot,” Holger Münch — the president of the German Federal Criminal Office (BKA) — stated in an interview with the Swiss news outlet NZZ.
Asked whether the alleged terrorists had set up their weapons dump at a site in Poland, Münch said only that it was “somewhere in Europe” and that further details would emerge from intelligence reports.
Three of the suspects were arrested in Berlin, according to a statement from the office of Germany’s Federal Prosecutor General. A fourth man was arrested in the Dutch city of Rotterdam and was extradited to Karlsruhe in Germany where the accused are awaiting trial.
Additionally, Danish police arrested three individuals on the same day in Copenhagen charged with planning terrorist attacks on Jewish targets, though it is not clear if the operations were connected. “It is a great strength that there is very intensive international cooperation in the fight against Islamist terrorism,” Münch said. “Our partners give us tips, we give them tips.”
Münch emphasized that the threat posed by Islamist terrorism was “never gone.”
“We still have a large number of radicalized people who continue to try to find themselves in the various forums and [chat] groups. The current Middle East conflict acts as an amplifier because it is emotionally charged,” he said, referring to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “At the moment, the danger therefore arises in particular from radicalized individual perpetrators or small groups who are planning comparatively easy to carry out attacks, for example with knives or vehicles, objects that are readily available.”
Münch also confessed that he was surprised by the “order of magnitude” of the antisemitic and Islamist propaganda circulating in Germany since the Oct. 7. Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.
“We have registered more than 4,700 crimes related to the terrorist attacks on Israel since Oct. 7,” he said. “These are quite often antisemitic crimes that are recorded as property damage or propaganda and incitement offenses by the police. Much of this crime is committed by people to whom we attribute to politically motivated crime — foreign ideology or religious ideology.”
Asked about the high proportion of Muslim immigrants detained for antisemitic agitation, Münch said that “we have to be even clearer about what our expectations of all people living here in Germany are.”
He continued: “It must be clear that certain values based on our history are inviolable. This includes Israel’s right to exist as well as the security of Jews in Germany.”
The post German Police Chief Voices Concern Over Islamist Terror Threat first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.