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Danish authorities said Thursday they prevented a terrorist attack after three arrests in Denmark and a fourth in the Netherlands, as Israel said suspects in Denmark were acting “on behalf of Hamas.”
In Berlin, prosecutors said German police also arrested three suspected Hamas members on Thursday, accused of preparing an attack on Jewish targets in Europe.
The three men, along with another suspect arrested in the Netherlands, were said to have begun preparing a weapons depot in the German capital where weapons would be “kept in a state of readiness in view of possible terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe.” “. German federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Danish police declined to comment on whether there was any link between the arrests reported in Denmark and Germany.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said in a statement that Danish security forces had “thwarted an attack aimed at killing innocent civilians on European soil.”
“The terrorist organization Hamas has been working tirelessly and exhaustively to expand its lethal operations to Europe and therefore constitute a threat to the internal security of these countries,” Netanyahu said.
Danish police did not go into details about the suspects or give any indication about the possible target of the alleged plot.
Danish police said raids were taking place across the country and were carried out at an early stage of the investigation.
Israeli spy agency Mossad said Danish agencies had exposed “Hamas infrastructure on European soil,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office (pictured).
FILE – Palestinian Hamas militants travel in a truck with their weapons
“It was a group that was planning a terrorist act,” Flemming Drejer, head of operations at the PET intelligence service, said at a news conference.
There were “ramifications involving other countries” and organized crime, he added.
Drejer would only say that other suspects currently abroad were also thought to be involved in the plot.
PET and several police districts made the arrests in Denmark during early morning raids in several parts of the Scandinavian country, officials said.
The threat level against Denmark is considered high: PET places it at four on its five-point threat scale.
Police stepped up their presence in Copenhagen but said the capital remained “safe.”
However, the Jewish community canceled a public Hanukkah celebration scheduled for Thursday night, Danish media reported.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the operations “show us the situation Denmark finds itself in.”
“For several years we have observed that there are people living in Denmark who do not wish us well, who are against our democracy, our freedom and who are against Danish society,” he told reporters.
Drejer and Dahl hold a press conference on coordinated police action at the police station in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Police Chief Inspector and Operational Head of the Police Intelligence Service (PET), Flemming Drejer (R), and Senior Police Inspector and Head of Emergency Services of the Copenhagen Police, Peter Dahl, hold a press conference on coordinated police action at the police station in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Over the summer, Denmark and neighboring Sweden became targets of anger in several Muslim countries after a series of protests in Scandinavia involving burnings and desecrations of the Koran.
In Iraq, nearly a thousand protesters attempted to march on the Danish embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in late July, following a call from firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Between July 21 and October 24 of this year, 483 book or flag burnings were recorded in Denmark, according to national police figures.
In response, Denmark’s parliament adopted a law earlier this month that makes it a crime to burn, tear or desecrate religious texts such as Islam’s holy book.
In 2006, a wave of anger and violence against Denmark erupted in the Muslim world after the small Nordic country published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
And in February 2015, a gunman who had expressed allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group opened fire at a cultural center in Copenhagen that hosted a forum on Islam and freedom of expression.
Last year, a Danish court sentenced an IS sympathizer to 16 years in prison for plotting a bomb attack. The verdict was the harshest ever handed down under Denmark’s anti-terrorism laws.