Germany charges 7 over suspected Hamas Oct. 7 anniversary plot
German prosecutors on Friday charged seven suspected members of Palestinian group Hamas for allegedly planning attacks to coincide with the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, assault in Israel.
"Since at least July 2025, Hamas had been planning a deadly attack in Germany or Austria targeting Israeli representatives, people of the Jewish faith or pro-Israeli individuals," prosecutors alleged.
"This attack was to take place in the immediate run-up to the second anniversary of Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023," they continued.
Suspected high-ranking Hamas operatives allegedly tasked two German citizens with securing weapons and ammunition in Germany, prosecutors said.
They were allegedly joined by a Danish national, a Bulgarian and three Lebanese, according to prosecutors.
When arrested last October, police found three of the men with an automatic rifle, 13 pistols and 700 bullets, according to the charges.
The seven, whose full names have not been made public, are in custody.
Another man suspected of having acted as a ringleader, identified only as Mohammed A., was arrested in London in November and has not yet been extradited.
Prosecutors suspect he moved some of the weapons to Vienna and made a video taking responsibility in the name of Hamas for the planned attack.
Germany has been on alert for potential attacks against the Jewish community since October 7, 2023.
The 2026 attack inside Israel, by fighters from the armed wing of Hamas in Gaza, resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's massive retaliatory ground offensive and bombardment of Gaza has killed 73,670 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable.
The ongoing Israeli military response has reduced to rubble most of the densely populated Palestinian territory, which had a population of around two million before October 2023.