Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General has indicted seven suspected members of the radical Islamist Hamas over preparations for an attack on Israeli or Jewish targets. The authority said on Friday in Karlsruhe that the suspects, who were arrested over the past several months, are believed to have played a leading role in procuring weapons and planning the attack. According to prosecutors, Hamas had already been planning a specific attack in Germany or Austria.
Senior officials of the Islamist Palestinian organisation had allegedly been preparing a “murderous attack” in one of the two countries since at least the summer of last year. It was intended to take place around the second anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, meaning in October last year. Potential targets included “representatives of Israel, people of the Jewish faith or people who support Israel”, the Federal Public Prosecutor General said on Friday. The defendants were allegedly tasked with preparing the attack.
The indictment was filed with the State Security Division of the Berlin Higher Regional Court. The men are accused of membership in a terrorist organisation and of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state. They also face charges of violating Germany’s Weapons Act and War Weapons Control Act. The court must first examine the indictment and decide whether to open the main proceedings.
The first three suspects were arrested by investigators in Berlin on October 1, 2025, shortly before the period in which the alleged attack was planned. According to the indictment, the group had already obtained 13 pistols, one fully automatic rifle and more than 700 rounds of ammunition by that point. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor General, Hamas’s military wing, the so-called Qassam Brigades, had begun establishing weapons caches for attacks in Europe some time earlier.
In the following months, another six men were arrested in Germany and other countries. The most recent arrest took place in Denmark, while previous arrests were made in the United Kingdom and Cyprus. In June, the Federal Public Prosecutor General said that investigators had since assumed there was a specific attack plan after a prepared claim-of-responsibility video was discovered on one of the suspects.
Of the nine suspects in total in the case, the authority has now indicted seven. A suspect arrested in the United Kingdom has not yet been transferred to Germany, it said. According to prosecutors, he played a “prominent role” in the alleged Hamas operation and was connected to the organisation’s leadership.
The man is also alleged to have transported part of the group’s weapons stockpiles to Vienna and stored them in the Austrian capital. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor General, he is also believed to have produced the alleged claim-of-responsibility video announcing the attack.
Among the seven defendants are two German citizens, as well as one Danish and one Bulgarian citizen. The other three were born in Lebanon, according to the Federal Public Prosecutor General. The authority did not provide the suspects’ ages.
Hamas has been subject to a comprehensive ban on its activities in Germany since November 2023 and is not permitted to operate in the country. Under German criminal law, it is classified as a foreign terrorist organisation. The group is active in the Gaza Strip, where it is fighting Israel. It denies the Jewish state’s right to exist and promotes an Islamist ideology.
Hamas is also classified as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States. According to the 2025 Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution report, Hamas continues to have a network of supporters and followers in Germany despite the ban on its activities. The network is concentrated primarily in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin and mainly provides logistical and financial support, including through fundraising. According to the report, it also participates in pro-Palestinian protests.
According to Germany’s domestic intelligence service, Hamas has also been carrying out “operational activities” in Germany since 2023. These include arrests such as those in the case that has now led to the latest indictments. In March this year, the Berlin Higher Regional Court already sentenced four members of a Hamas underground cell to several years in prison.
The court found that they had acted as Hamas operatives abroad and, among other things, searched for hidden weapons caches in Germany, Poland, Denmark and Bulgaria. They had been arrested in December 2023. In that case, there was no evidence of concrete plans for an attack.
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