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Arrests of Hamas Suspects Underline Jewish Insecurity in Europe

Masked German police officers arrive at an address in Berlin during an operation targeting alleged Hamas terrorists. Photo: Reuters/Paul Zinken

JNS.org – Unless you follow the news from Europe closely, it’s unlikely you’ll be aware that last week, seven alleged Hamas suspects believed to be planning attacks on Jewish targets were arrested during police raids in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.

It’s not entirely clear whether these police operations were coordinated across borders, although the details that have emerged since the arrests suggest that they were.

According to a statement from the German Federal Prosecutor’s office, three of the men were arrested in Berlin while traveling back from a weapons dump allegedly set up by one of them, whose name was given by police as Abdelhamid Al A. and who reportedly arrived in Germany earlier this year on the orders of Hamas leaders based in Lebanon. Both this suspect and the other two, named as Mohamed B. and Nazih R., were alleged to have visited the weapons dump on several occasions since the Oct. 7 pogrom executed by Hamas terrorists in the south of Israel.

A fourth man allegedly connected to the trio in Germany was arrested in Rotterdam by Dutch police and handed over to the Berlin authorities. All of them are said to be closely linked to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, which played a key role in planning and executing the pogrom in which 1,200 people were murdered and more than 200 seized as hostages.

Separately, Danish police announced on the same day that three people had been arrested in Copenhagen on terrorism charges. In this case, however, the police said only that the detainees had intended to carry out an “act of terror” and didn’t specify whether there was a connection to Hamas. What they did do was advise the local Chabad rabbi to cancel a Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony in the center of the Danish capital on the grounds that the event was a security risk, indicating that the authorities regard terrorist attacks on Jewish communities as a clear and present danger, and that other terror suspects yet to be detained remain at large.

If it turns out that these detainees were dispatched for the purpose of carrying out terror attacks on European soil, then that would mark a major strategic departure for Hamas. The organization retains an ample presence in Europe but has restricted its activities to propaganda and fundraising—activities that European governments have attempted to clamp down before and after the Oct. 7 atrocities with varying degrees of commitment and success. But unlike its cousins ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Hamas has so far not engaged in violence against European targets, presumably out of concern that doing so would alienate public opinion and run afoul of law enforcement.

One can see that Hamas might be tempted to attack a specifically Jewish target rather than a general one, calculating that this would sit better with public opinion. During the last decade in France, Islamists carried out terror operations against both Jewish targets, including the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris, and general ones, such as the Bataclan nightclub in the French capital; public outrage and protest was typically higher following attacks on the general targets rather than the Jewish ones.

Going further back, Hamas may believe, not unreasonably, that the response of many European non-Jews to a terror attack on a synagogue or Jewish school would echo the reaction of former French Prime Minister Raymond Barre to the October 1980 Palestinian terrorist attack on the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris. Noting that four people had been killed outside the synagogue—only one of whom happened to be Jewish—Barre stated that “this odious attack was aimed at hitting Jews going to the synagogue but hit innocent French people who were crossing Rue Copernic.”

In other words, while violence and terror should be abhorred, it’s easier to rationalize such acts when Jews are killed rather than non-Jews, because Jews are less “innocent.”

Most European politicians today would run a mile from a Barre-like reaction. Their rhetoric, especially in Germany and France, though less so in Spain, has focused on reassuring Jewish communities that they are safe and insisting to the general population that the Jewish presence among them is both welcome and non-negotiable. Yet law enforcement has lagged behind these good intentions, while public opinion remains ambiguous, tolerating angry mass protests in capitals and major cities every week in support of Hamas. At the same time, media coverage of Israel’s defensive war in the Gaza Strip, which emphasizes the plight of Palestinian civilians and lays the lion’s share of blame for their ordeal at Israel’s door, bolsters public perceptions of the Jewish state as a rogue state. In the minds of more than a few, Israeli culpability makes attacks on Jews outside Israel far more understandable, if not wholly justifiable.

There is a further dimension to the problem. Episodes like last week’s arrests encourage the view that terrorism is something imported from the outside, meticulously planned before it is executed. In many cases, of course, that is true—but not in all of them. Arguably, European Jews have more to fear from the people living in their own neighborhoods than from terrorists flying in from the Middle East. Last week, for example, an unidentified Arab man wielding a knife entered a daycare center near Paris that caters to toddlers, many of whom are from Jewish families. “You’re a Jew, you’re a Zionist. Five of us are going to rape you, cut you up like they did in Gaza,” the intruder told the daycare center’s terrified director before fleeing the scene. The center has now been forced to close.

Stories like these, as well as pettier but still ugly acts of anti-Jewish bigotry and discrimination, are a daily occurrence in Europe at present. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has said that the war to eliminate Hamas is not going to end anytime soon. As terrible as it is to say so, we need to be preparing for the aftermath of a terror outrage aimed at Jews in a European, or even American, city. We can expect the relevant governments and police agencies to be supportive and sympathetic in such an eventuality. But the jury is out on the public at large—whether their reaction will be like that of Raymond Barre, or even worse.

The post Arrests of Hamas Suspects Underline Jewish Insecurity in Europe 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.

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