Hamas agents arrested over plot to commit terror attack in Germany

The three men were arrested in Berlin.

"In the course of today's arrests, various weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and several pistols, as well as a considerable amount of ammunition, were found," said the federal prosecutors in a statement.

The three, identified in line with German privacy laws only as German citizen Abed Al G., Wael F. M., born in Lebanon, and German citizen Ahmad I., were arrested in Berlin.

In February, four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin in what prosecutors described as the first court case against militants of the Islamist group in Germany.

Local media reported that anti-terror investigators observed how the accused met on Wednesday in Berlin for a weapon handover before operational forces intervened and discovered functional weapons.

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The Federal Prosecutor's Office accuses the men of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation and of planning serious acts of violence endangering the state.

It comes amidst the review by Hamas of President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, which has stretched into a third day on Wednesday.

Other Palestinian factions have rejected the proposal, with Israel resuming their offensive on Gaza City.

"Accepting the plan is a disaster, rejecting it is another, there are only bitter choices here, but the plan is a Netanyahu plan articulated by Trump," a Palestinian official, familiar with Hamas' deliberations with other factions, told reporters.

They added: "Hamas is keen to end the war and end the genocide, and it will respond in the way that serves the higher interests of the Palestinian people", without elaborating.

Residents in Gaza City said Israeli planes and tanks pounded residential neighbourhoods throughout the night.

Local health authorities said that at least 35 people across Gaza had been killed by the military on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City.

A strike on the old city in northwestern Gaza City killed seven people, while six people sheltering in a school in another part of the city were killed in a separate strike, medics said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued new orders for people to leave for the south and said it would no longer allow those to return to the north, as Gaza City came under heavy bombing.

Defence Minister Israel Katz described the move as "tightening the encirclement around Gaza on the way to defeating Hamas", saying Palestinians willing to leave to the south would have to go through army vetting.

Earlier this week, President Trump announced a plan to end the Gaza war that hinted at a future role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its 89-year-old leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, who hasn't faced an election since 2005.

The PA has long positioned itself as ready to take over from Hamas in Gaza, stepping up promises of reforms since the administration led by Joe Biden floated the idea of a "revitalised" PA running a post-war Gaza.

Trump's plan foresees Gaza run by a transitional, apolitical Palestinian committee overseen by an international body chaired by Trump and former Prime Minister Tony Blair "until such time" as the PA has completed reforms, including what Palestinian analysts see as politically tough demands laid out in his 2020 peace plan.

The plan would also deploy an international stabilisation force which would train and support vetted Palestinian police, in consultation with Jordan and Egypt.