A German court has sentenced four men to imprisonment for their involvement in a network that stored weapons to be used in attacks in Europe—under the direction of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The verdict was delivered in Berlin on Wednesday, March 25th.
The men, aged between 36 and 58, were convicted of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation and received prison sentences ranging from four to six years. According to presiding judge Doris Husch, the group had been involved in building and maintaining weapons depots as part of preparations for possible attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli sites across Europe.
The defendants were partially identified as Abdelhamid Al A. and Ibrahim El R., both born in Lebanon, Egyptian national Mohammed B., and Dutch national Nazih R.
They were arrested in December 2023, shortly after the Hamas pogrom against Israelis, with Nazih R. detained in Rotterdam and the others in Berlin.
Prosecutors stated that the group had established, maintained, and dismantled underground storage sites for weapons. One of the men, Ibrahim El R., reportedly travelled to Bulgaria in 2019 to bury a cache of weapons and later transported a firearm into Germany from Denmark. He received the longest sentence of six years.
Authorities also said the group attempted to retrieve weapons from a location in Poland but failed to find them. The stored arms were allegedly intended for use in attacks on targets including the Israeli embassy in Berlin and the U.S. base in Ramstein.
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