(Daily Mail) Danish authorities said Thursday they prevented a terror attack after three arrests in Denmark and a fourth in the Netherlands, as Israel said the suspects in Denmark were acting ‘on behalf of Hamas‘.
In Berlin, prosecutors said German police also arrested three suspected members of Hamas on Thursday, accused of preparing an attack against Jewish targets in Europe.
The three men, along with another suspect arrested in the Netherlands, were said to have begun preparing a weapons cache in the German capital where arms would be ‘kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe,’ German federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Danish police refused to comment on whether there was any link between the arrests reported in Denmark and Germany.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said meanwhile in a statement that Danish security forces had ‘thwarted an attack, the goal of which was to kill innocent civilians on European soil.’
‘The Hamas terrorist organisation has been working relentlessly and exhaustively to expand its lethal operations to Europe, and thereby constitute a threat to the domestic security of these countries,’ Netanyahu said.
Danish police did not go into details about the suspects or give any indication as to the possible target of the alleged plot.
Danish police said raids were ongoing across the country and were carried out at an early stage of the investigation
Israel’s Mossad spy agency said that the Danish agencies had exposed ‘Hamas infrastructure on European soil,’ according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured)
FILE – Palestinian militants from Hamas ride on a truck with their weapons
‘It was a group that was planning an act of terror,’ Flemming Drejer, head of operations at the PET intelligence service, told a news conference.
There were ‘ramifications involving other countries’ and organised crime, he added.
Drejer would only say that other suspects currently abroad were also thought to be implicated in the plot.
The PET and several police districts made the arrests in Denmark in early morning raids in several parts of the Scandinavian country, the officials said.
The threat level against Denmark is judged to be elevated, with the PET putting it at four on their five-point threat scale.
Police stepped up their presence in Copenhagen but said the capital remained ‘safe’.
The Jewish community nonetheless cancelled a public Hanukkah celebration planned for Thursday evening, Danish media reported.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the operations ‘show us the situation that Denmark is in’.
‘For several years we have noted that there are people who live in Denmark and who do not wish us well, who are against our democracy, our freedom, and who are against Danish society,’ she told reporters.
Drejer and Dahl hold a press briefing on coordinated police action, at the police station in Copenhagen, Denmark
Chief police inspector and operational chief of Police Intelligence Service (PET) Flemming Drejer (R) and senior police inspector and head of emergency services in Copenhagen Police Peter Dahl hold a press briefing on coordinated police action, at the police station in Copenhagen, Denmark
