Germany Says Hamas Network Planned Major Attack on 7 October Anniversary

German authorities say they found a pre-recorded video among the belongings of a suspect linked to a European Hamas terror network, in which he takes responsibility for an attack that was foiled and planned for the anniversary of the October 7 massacre. Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel announced the findings at his annual press conference on Tuesday in Karlsruhe.

German investigators believe Hamas planned a specific large-scale attack in Europe to coincide with the 2025 anniversary of the assault on the communities near the Gaza border. Since last autumn, German law enforcement has arrested nine suspects overall for supporting Hamas and belonging to the network. Prosecutors say they were involved in transporting and storing weapons and ammunition for the group at least since the summer of 2025.

The first three suspects were detained on October 1, 2025, just days before the anniversary. In the following months, six more men were arrested in Germany and other European countries, most recently in Denmark in late May, and earlier in Britain and Cyprus. Prosecutors also say one defendant is suspected of storing weapons in Vienna.

At the end of March, Berlin’s Higher Regional Court sentenced four members of the Hamas cell to prison terms of several years. The court said the men, acting as Hamas operatives, searched for weapons caches in Germany, Poland, Denmark and Bulgaria, among other places, and convicted them of membership in a foreign terrorist organization. It was the first time Germany’s top court on the matter ruled that Hamas qualifies as a foreign terrorist organization under German criminal law. Israel’s embassy in Berlin said Hamas did not only hand out sweets in Berlin on October 7, 2023, but also prepared terror in Germany and Europe through weapons shipments, confession videos and an international network, adding, “The district court in Berlin calls them by their name, terrorists. Their goal remains the same, in Israel as here, to kill innocent people.”