German security forces raid multiple properties over Hamas connection

Berlin, Nov 23, (dpa/GNA) – More than 350 police officers, took part in raids targeting two banned Palestinian organizations in the German capital Berlin, early on Thursday morning.

Across Germany, 15 properties were raided and searched, 11 of them in Berlin, a spokeswoman for the city’s administration said.

Police also raided properties in the states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein. in connection with the ban on the Palestinian extremist organization Hamas, and the international Palestinian prisoner advocacy network, Samidoun in Germany.

The German government banned both groups earlier this month.

The German Interior Ministry announced the raids on Thursday morning. The measures were ordered by the administrative courts, to enforce the bans, and to further clarify the structures of these banned groups, the ministry said.

“We have achieved enormous success with the last raids, and that will continue today,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Thursday, on the sidelines of an event by public broadcaster ZDF in Berlin.

“We are continuing to take tough action against Islamists. We have issued the ban on Hamas and the ban on Samidoun Germany, and now we are enforcing the corresponding measures resulting from these bans. This is a tough crackdown by the rule of law.”

On November 2, the German government banned Samidoun, and imposed further measures to stamp out support for the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, which is already listed as a terrorist organization in the European Union.

“By banning Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any glorification or support of Hamas’ barbaric terror against Israel,” Faeser said at the time.

“Samidoun, as an international network, spreads anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda under the guise of being a ‘solidarity organization’ for prisoners in various countries,” Faeser said.

Under the ban, the groups’ assets can be confiscated, and any internet presence or social media activities by the groups have been outlawed, according to Faeser’s ministry. Anyone who continues to be active for the organizations, is committing a criminal offence, the ministry said.

Germany’s intelligence services estimate that Hamas, has around 450 members in Germany.

According to the findings, its activities include expressions of sympathy and propaganda activities, as well as the collection of donations.

In contrast to Islamist terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda or Islamic State, Hamas does not carry out attacks in Western countries, but only in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

However, terror experts fear that the war in Gaza will increase the risk of attacks by sympathisers of other terrorist organisations, and radicalized individual perpetrators.

The number of new terrorism investigations initiated by the Federal Public Prosecutor General, has recently risen significantly.

According to a government answer to a question from the left-wing parliamentary group, 356 investigations relating to Islamist terrorism alone were initiated, between the beginning of January and the end of September.

As the list, which was made available to dpa, shows, most of these cases involved allegations of membership of a terrorist organization.

By comparison, in the same period last year, the general prosecutor initiated 183 investigations relating to Islamist terrorism. In 2022, 236 of the 451 new investigations were related to Islamist terrorism.

A total of 151 investigations into international, non-Islamic terrorism were initiated in the first nine months of this year, an increase of around 42%, compared to the same period in 2022.

In June, a suspected leading cadre of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is also banned in Germany, was detained at Frankfurt Airport.

GNA