Weapons, ammunition and a claim-of-responsibility video reveal the Islamic terrorist group Hamas’s expanding operational reach across Europe
New Delhi: Germany has now revealed further details of a coordinated terror plot by the Islamic terror group Hamas to attack Israeli and Jewish targets in Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, around October 7, 2025, the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel.
On September 11, 2026, Germany formally announced charges against seven suspected Hamas members, with the 214-page indictment providing detailed allegations about the planned attacks in the German and Austrian capitals. German Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel first revealed on June 15, 2026, that investigators believed the Islamic terror group Hamas had pursued a concrete attack plan in Europe and had found a pre-recorded claim-of-responsibility video referring to an attack around October 7, 2025.
The targets included Israeli diplomats, Jewish community centres and pro-Israel demonstrations. Seven men have been charged in Germany in connection with the plot and remain in pretrial detention. The indictment, obtained by WELT, reveals that Vienna was also a planned target, expanding the earlier German investigation into suspected Hamas-linked attacks.
The operation was backed by a weapons-procurement network spanning Denmark, Germany and Austria. According to the indictment, the network moved pistols, an automatic rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition through the three countries. The Islamic terror group Hamas sought to build an operational capability in Europe that went beyond fundraising, propaganda and logistical activity.
The plot began to unravel on October 1, 2025, only six days before the planned October 7 attacks. German authorities arrested three suspects in Berlin during the handover of a weapons cache that prosecutors say had been assembled for the operation.
Investigators seized a fully automatic Crvena Zastava assault rifle, eight Glock 26 pistols and more than 600 rounds of ammunition in the courtyard of a residential building on Turmstrasse in Berlin’s Moabit district. The weapons had travelled through a procurement chain extending across Germany and Denmark.
Investigators identified two separate but coordinated weapons channels. One supplied the Berlin arsenal, while another moved five handguns and ammunition from Copenhagen through Berlin to Vienna. In Vienna, the weapons were stored in a rented unit alongside clothing and other equipment.
The indictment says one suspect also recorded a claim-of-responsibility video in Vienna in August 2025. Masked and armed in front of a Hamas flag, he threatened revenge attacks in Europe in the name of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic terror group Hamas.
The case also raises questions about an intelligence informant. One of the accused was working as a confidential informant for Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. Prosecutors allege that the informant continued reporting to his handler while failing to disclose the full extent of his own involvement in obtaining ammunition for the group.
The indictment portrays the Berlin and Vienna operation as part of a wider shift in the Islamic terror group Hamas’s activities in Europe. Intelligence assessments cited in the filing say plans existed even before the October 7, 2023 attack to establish and train operational cells on the continent.
According to the assessments, Turkey was intended to serve as a base, while attacks could be directed remotely from abroad. Prosecutors also alleged that the weapons operation was coordinated from Lebanon, where a Hamas operative supervised one procurement channel connecting members of the network across Europe.
The objective, according to the indictment, was to move the Islamic terror group Hamas beyond fundraising, propaganda and logistical operations and develop the capability to conduct attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in the West.
The investigation had already become public in Germany in 2025, when federal prosecutors announced arrests of men suspected of preparing attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets. The newly detailed indictment indicates that Austria, and particularly Vienna, formed part of the operational plan.
The seven accused remain in pretrial detention, while the case has been brought before the state-security division of Berlin’s highest state court. It is expected to become one of Germany’s most significant terrorism prosecutions in recent years.
The plot also demonstrates the geographic reach described by prosecutors, with Germany, Austria and Denmark linked through weapons movements and Lebanon and Turkey appearing in the wider intelligence picture. The planned timing around October 7, 2025, gave the operation a direct connection to the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel.
