Massive networks of Hamas agents are operating across Europe and the UK, Israel has claimed – just days after the European Union warned of a “huge risk of terrorist attacks” over Christmas.
Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry sent personal letters to leaders across Europe warning that Hamas has a “complex network of hatred operating in many countries, including Western and highly democratic ones,” according to the ministry’s head of research Tzur Bar-Oz.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli added: “This is not the time for ambiguity. I want to clarify this unequivocally. Hamas has proven that their goal is to kill Jews everywhere.”
Letters were sent to leaders in 20 countries including the UK, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Germany, and representatives of the European Union, The Jerusalem Post reported.
They warned that Hamas operatives and sympathisers are currently active and that their “activity has already yielded results and produced consequences”.
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Those fears materialised last week when an ISIS supporter allegedly attacked a group of tourists near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which saw a 24-year-old German-Filipino man killed. Two others were injured in the knife and hammer attack.
Minister Chikli reportedly shared information with leaders about terrorist activity in Europe amid fears the sleeper cells could be activated.
The warning comes amid a surge in anti-Semitism across the continent since war broke out between Israel and Hamas following a brutal October 7 terror attack carried out by the Palestinian group.
Chilki said: “Since the massacre, calls for violence against Jews worldwide have increased by 120 percent.”
Bar-Oz also warned: “Hamas has been operating for many years worldwide, mainly through covert humanitarian donations.”
He added that Hamas agents “must be uprooted and eradicated as soon as possible,” presumably to prevent more violence.
European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said tensions caused by the war between Israel and Hamas made violence across the continent more likely.
Referring to last week’s Paris attack, she said: “We saw [it happening] recently in Paris, unfortunately, we have seen it earlier as well.”
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the attack showed “just how acute and how serious the threat posed by Islamist terrorism is currently in the EU”. She sent condolences to France.
The threat leaves Europe on high alert as holidaymakers flock to the continent to attend festive Christmas markets. Terrorists have targeted these events before, for example in Berlin and Strasbourg.
