Germany charges 7 suspected Hamas members over Oct. 7 anniversary attack plot

German prosecutors on Friday charged seven suspected members of Palestinian terror group Hamas for allegedly planning attacks to coincide with the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attack.

“Since at least July 2025, Hamas had been planning a deadly attack in Germany or Austria targeting Israeli representatives, people of the Jewish faith or pro-Israeli individuals,” prosecutors alleged.

“This attack was to take place in the immediate run-up to the second anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023,” they continued.

Prosecutors said the men acted on orders from senior Hamas figures.

Suspected high-ranking Hamas operatives allegedly tasked two German citizens with securing weapons and ammunition in Germany, prosecutors said.

They were allegedly joined by a Danish national, a Bulgarian and three Lebanese, according to prosecutors.

When arrested last October, police found three of the men with an automatic rifle, 13 pistols and 700 bullets, according to the charges.

The seven, whose full names have not been made public, remain in custody.

Another man suspected of having acted as a ringleader, identified only as Mohammed A., was arrested in London in November and has not yet been extradited.

Prosecutors suspect he moved some of the weapons to Vienna and made a video taking responsibility in the name of Hamas for the planned attack.

German domestic intelligence has said the foiled plot shows that Hamas or affiliated individuals are attempting to “establish clandestine logistical networks in Germany for procuring weapons and planning attacks.”

Germany has been on alert for potential attacks against the Jewish community since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

According to a report in July by the J7 Task Force, an organization representing major Jewish communities across seven nations, Germany documented 8,725 antisemitic incidents in 2025, marking a 215% spike over five years.

That represented the highest per capita rate in the world, with nearly 70 incidents per 1,000 Jewish residents, as attacks by both far-right groups and far-left anti-imperialist networks surged. Researchers also flagged an accelerating erosion of Holocaust memory and awareness, particularly among younger demographics.