By Marion van der Kraats and Jacqueline Melcher
The Berlin Court of Appeal found that the defendants, aged between 36 and 58, acted as “foreign operatives” responsible for the Islamist group’s weapons caches in several European countries, including Poland, Bulgaria and Denmark.
The men were accused of setting up underground caches of weapons for potential use in attacks on Israeli and Jewish facilities in Europe over a long period.
The charge sheet listed possible targets including the Israeli embassy in Berlin, the Ramstein airbase operated by the United States military in Germany and the area around Berlin’s disused Tempelhof airport.
The Lebanese-born men were detained in December 2023. One is an Egyptian citizen and another is a Dutch national.
Judge Doris Husch explained that the court was the first of its kind in Germany to consider whether Hamas is a terrorist organization.
More than one year after the trial began, the court showed no doubt that this was the case, finding the men guilty of membership of a foreign terrorist organization.
The defendants denied being members of Hamas. One defendant admitted to having visited a weapons cache in Bulgaria but said the incident involved “private arms dealing.”
Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office received a tip-off from intelligence services shortly after the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel regarding a “conspiratorial weapons-related operation by Hamas in Germany.”
Covert investigations were subsequently launched, ultimately leading to the arrest of the four suspects.
In recent months, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has had eight further suspects arrested in connection with the alleged procurement of weapons for Hamas.
According to investigators, the weapons were intended for use in assassinations and attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany and Europe.
In early October 2025, the Karlsruhe-based office had three suspected Hamas members arrested in Berlin.
By the end of the year, this was followed by an arrest in London, one at the German-Czech border and one at the German-Danish border.
Most recently, in January, a suspect was arrested at Berlin Airport upon his arrival from Beirut.
