Britons are facing a period of “heightened risk,” a security expert has warned, after it was revealed that a Hamas plot to murder Jews in Europe was disrupted by intelligence agencies.
Three people were arrested in Denmark, three in Germany, and another in the Netherlands as German officials revealed that four of the seven suspects are members of terrorist group Hamas.
The suspected terrorists were attempting to bring weapons to Berlin to attack Jewish institutions, according to German prosecutors.
Germany, alongside Britain and the US, has stood up as one of Israel’s firmest supporters in their war with Hamas since the unprecedented terror attack on October 7.
The suspected terrorists were attempting to bring weapons to Berlin to attack Jewish institutions, according to German prosecutorsREUTERSBut there are now fears that this intercepted plot represents a growing threat to European and British civilians from Hamas and its allied terrorist groups.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said it was “completely unacceptable” for the terror suspects “to bring a conflict elsewhere in the world into Danish society.”
Philip Ingram, a former senior military intelligence officer, told GB News: “This development of Hamas tactics comes soon after a senior official called for acts of violence against American and British interests.”
He added: “The growing pro-Palestinian movement carrying out demonstrations across the globe is a perfect environment for Hamas terrorists and launch attacks from.”
Earlier this month, Sami Abu Zuhri, the head of the political department of Hamas abroad, said that the Americans and British “must pay a price” for the violence in Gaza.
Ingram’s warning comes as the UK Counter Terror Police have started a pre-Christmas campaign urging the public to be vigilant.
Security sources told GB News last month that a terror attack linked to the conflict in Gaza was likely “only a matter of time.”
France and Belgium recently raised their terror threat levels following recent attacks.
A mass stabbing in a school in Arras, northern France, and a shooting targeting Swedish football fans in Belgium were both linked to the war in the Middle East.
A fatal stabbing near the Eiffel Tower in Paris earlier this month was also linked to the war, with the suspect understood to have claimed that France was complicit in the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.
Ingram said: “These disrupted attacks in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands show that international intelligence and security services remain capable, but the terrorists only have to be successful once.”
The Community Security Trust, a charity that provides security advice for Jewish institutions, told the Telegraph: “Historically, Hamas has never shown interest in carrying out terrorist attacks outside of Israel. There have been one or two plots over the years linked to them but nothing on a significant scale.
“But if this is a shift in policy for Hamas to carry out attacks on Jewish communities outside the region, in line with Iran and Hezbollah, that would be extremely concerning. It represents a significant shift in the threat posed to Jewish communities. There is a big concern if Hamas HQ is ordering Hamas people in Europe to carry out an attack.”
The British security services are known to monitor some 40,000 people on an extremism watchlist.
Cops and security experts have to make a judgment call on which targets they monitor more closely to reduce the risk to the public.
Security agencies often snuff out major plots like the gun-running plan recently disrupted in Europe but find it harder to track so-called “lone wolf” terrorists, who can become radicalised in isolation.