Austrian authorities uncovered a weapons cache in Vienna linked to Hamas that was reportedly intended to be used for potential terrorist attacks in Europe.
The potential attacks intended to target Israeli or Jewish institutions in Europe, a Thursday press release from the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence said.
The authorities said that they identified a 39-year-old British citizen as a suspect. He is suspected of being closely linked to the weapons cache and of running the terror group's operations across Europe.
The suspect was arrested in London on Monday.
Weapon stockpiles, advocacy, fundraising: Hamas's web in Europe
The news of the weapons cache came just days after The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center released a report detailing Hamas's influence campaigns throughout Europe, its weapons caches, and its fundraising efforts.
Raising funds for both their military and civilian efforts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, some efforts by the terror group also saw early attempts to establish political movements across the continent.
However, the center claimed that European leadership only took serious measures against this campaign after the October 7 invasion into southern Israel, where the terror group massacred more than 1,200 people along with their Palestinian allies.
While Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization across the European Union, Hamas’s presence in Germany has grown significantly stronger throughout the last decade. Data shared by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency showed the number of Hamas operatives increased by 50% from 2008 to 2023, now reaching over 450.
Hamas’s political and fundraising efforts in Germany
Walid Abu Shawarib was reportedly Hamas’s point of contact in Germany until 2014, when Majed Khalil Mousa al-Zeer took over the role, the report claimed, citing Interior Ministry documents. Al-Zeer, a British citizen, reportedly moved to Berlin for the role after previously heading the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) - an organization considered by Israel to be a Hamas propaganda arm.
The PRC was banned in Israel by then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak for its connection with Hamas. Zaher al-Birawi, Majed al-Zeer, Sheikh Majdi Akeel. Ghassan Faour and Arafat Madi Shukri are among the Hamas officials heading PRC, according to NGO Monitor, which also noted the group’s strong affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas officials also speak at and attend annual PRC conferences.
After working in Berlin for 10 years, al-Zeer relocated to Turkey following US sanctions against him, which labelled him Hamas’ senior representative in Germany and highlighted his fundraising efforts for the group.
The report noted that Aachen had once housed the al-Aqsa Foundation's central branch, a key body in Hamas’s fundraising efforts in the West, until it was banned by the interior ministry in 2002. During a July crackdown, German authorities confiscated assets and accounts totaling €300,000 from the homes and offices of its board members.
Despite evidence that the money was being transferred to Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza, a German court allowed the al-Aqsa Foundation to continue to operate until a Federal Administrative Court ordered the organization to end its activities in 2004. The foundation’s founder, Mahmoud Amr, was deported from Germany in 2004 and resettled in Belgium, where he became active in the local branch of the al-Aqsa Foundation, which has now changed its name to Bayt al-Aqsa (Aqsahum), the report claimed.
Since successfully ending the al-Aqsa Foundation’s fundraising efforts, Hamas has set up several new charities to take its place, which were also later shut down by authorities. Among them, the report listed Bremer Hilfswerk e.V., which was allowed to fundraise for Hamas for two years until it was closed in 2005.
Ansaar International e.V., founded on September 20, 2012, and later registered under the name Ansaar Düsseldorf e.V., was banned in 2021 along with some of its affiliated charities after Berlin found that funds were being sent directly to Hamas.
Hamas’s planned attacks in Germany
German authorities arrested three suspected Hamas members last month, believing the trio to have been planning an attack on Jewish and Israeli targets in Berlin since the summer. The three suspects had allegedly acquired a large number of arms and ammunition, including Kalashnikov assault rifles and pistols.
Abd al-G. And Ahmed I., one of the suspects named, is a Syrian immigrant with German citizenship, and the third, identified as Wael F. M., arrived in the country from Lebanon in the summer of 2025, according to Bild. The third suspect was under surveillance since his first arrival.
Hamas claimed there was no connection between the detainees and the movement, though the Mossad confirmed it provided information to Germany ahead of the arrests.
Hamas operatives scattered throughout Europe
Nearly two years prior, in December 2023, German security forces arrested three Lebanese-born Hamas operatives who had lived for years in Europe. Abdelhamid al-Ali had resided in Catania, Italy, Lebanese-Egyptian national Muhammad Ibrahim Ali Ibrahim Bassiouny in Berlin, and Ibrahim el-Rassatm in Berlin since 2012.
Authorities in the Netherlands also arrested Dutch-Lebanese national Nazih Rustom, who was extradited to Germany in February 2024. In his possession, authorities reportedly found a USB device containing intelligence information, including photographs of the Israeli embassy in Berlin, the former Tempelhof airport complex in Berlin, and the American Ramstein Air Base.
Al-Ali, Bassiouny, el-Rassatm, and Rustom were all indicted in November 2024. The indictment stated that the four terrorists had maintained direct contact with Hamas’s military wing in Lebanon and were receiving instructions on how to promote the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades’ activities in Europe.
The four were also said to have established hidden caches for concealing weapons and attacking Israeli and American targets in Europe. The caches, according to the report, were a surprise to German intelligence, which had focused exclusively on Hamas’s fundraising and political exploits in the country.
During the investigation, three additional people were arrested. Al-Mahmoud, a Hamas operative living in Helsinki, Finland; Anna Barbara Grossman, a German citizen who served as an assistant to el-Rassatmi; and Rash Rash, an operative who went on missions with Rustom.
Hamas’s weapons caches in Bulgaria and Denmark
El-Rassatmi was said to have visited Bulgaria to establish weapons caches near the city of Plovdiv after being instructed to do so by the deputy commander of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Lebanon, Khalil Hamed al-Kharaz, after October 7. During his visit, he was also instructed to inspect the weapons in existing caches there.
In August 2023, el-Rassatmi returned to Bulgaria with Grossman, where he took photographs of the weapons and forwarded them to al-Kharaz, who was dissatisfied with their conditions.
Hamas’s hold in Denmark
During the same period, German authorities were arresting Hamas operatives in the country, with assistance from the Mossad. Some of the six authorities arrested were accused of purchasing drones to carry out attacks on European nations on behalf of Hamas.
Two female suspects were working with a criminal organization known to act as proxies for Hamas, Loyal to Familia (LTF), according to the report. After the organization, conducted by al-Kharaz, was banned in Denmark in 2021, a large number of its members fled to Lebanon but were later extradited.
The country was also previously home to one of Hamas’s oldest weapons caches, originally established by Hamas operative Muhammed Dibaje, a Lebanese man of Palestinian origin and member of LTF. During a 2019 meeting with Hamas officials in Lebanon, el-Rassatmi was instructed to move the cache to Germany and is understood to have done so, transferring the weapons by bus to avoid detection.
Hamas’s missing weapons cache in Poland
The terror group had also hidden a weapons cache near Jeleniów, in Poland, but was said to have lost track of the items, making four separate attempts from June 9, 2023, and December 14, 2023, to locate it.
In June 2023, Rustom and Rash Rash had reportedly flown to Berlin under instructions to travel to Poland to find the weapons. After crossing the border in a rented car, the pair spent two unsuccessful days searching for the weapons.
Failing to complete their mission, Rustom was said to have flown to Istanbul to report their failure in person to the leadership of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
After being informed that the cache was not located, al-Mahmoud flew from Helsinki to Berlin to continue the search along with el-Rassatmi. Along with an assistant, the three traveled in a rented car to search around the Polish town of Szklarska Poręba. The trio was again unable to locate the cache and informed al-Kharaz by phone call.
Only three days before Hamas’s invasion into southern Israel, Rustom received encrypted coordinates for the cache in Poland and traveled from Lebanon to hunt for the weapons in the Jeleniów area. Along with Bassinouny, Rustom, and an assistant, crossed into Poland and spent five unsuccessful hours searching for the weapons again before returning to Berlin.
Another attempt, also in October, saw al-Ali fly from Beirut to Berlin. El-Rassatmi supplied al-Ali with digging equipment and, along with Bassiouny, he traveled to Poland on the morning of October 15 to hunt for the missing cache. Al-Ali returned to Beirut on October 18 after again failing to locate the weapons.
In December, al-Ali returned to look for the weapons but postponed the search due to the weather. Authorities arrested him and his co-conspirators before they could search again.