A South West London man was arrested for online support of Hamas by the Metropolitan Counter Terrorism Command detectives on Tuesday, police said.
The 47-year-old, who was released on bail, was suspected of showing support for the proscribed terrorist organization in violation of the 2000 Terrorism Act. The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit was notified of the posts and passed it on to investigative units,
“Since the terrible attacks in Israel last October, and throughout the ensuing conflict, we have seen a significant increase in the amount of extremist and terrorist material being referred to us by the public," said Met Counter Terrorism Command head Commander Dominic Murphy. “Every single referral gets assessed by specialist officers, and where we think terrorism offenses could have been committed here in the UK, then we will always look to investigate, identify and arrest the person responsible and bring them to justice if we find evidence of a crime being committed.”