Germany charges seven suspected Hamas members over Berlin-Vienna attack plot

German federal prosecutors charged seven suspected Hamas members on Friday, alleging they plotted attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets in Berlin and Vienna around the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attacks. The suspects allegedly procured automatic rifles, pistols, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The case is before Berlin's state-security court.

Bottom line — The trial is expected to be one of Germany's most significant terrorism cases, involving an international weapons network via Denmark and Austria.

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• Prosecutors say the plot became concrete by July 2025, with the planned attacks timed for October 7, 2025, per the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe.
• Three suspects were arrested in Berlin on October 1, 2025, six days before the alleged attack date, according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office.
• One suspect filmed a claim-of-responsibility video in Vienna on August 7, 2025, in front of a Hamas flag, announcing revenge on behalf of the Al-Qassam Brigades, per court documents obtained by Die Welt.
• The weapons cache recovered in a Berlin backyard included a fully automatic rifle, 13 pistols, and over 600 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said.
• Investigators traced two separate smuggling routes: one from Denmark to Berlin and Vienna, another from Hesse to Berlin, per German news reports cited by The National.
• A suspect arrested in London in November 2025, Mohammed A., is alleged to have played a prominent role and is being prosecuted separately, per German prosecutors.
• Hamas has been banned in Germany since November 2023 but maintains a support network concentrated in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, per the 2025 Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution report.
• In March 2026, a Berlin court sentenced four other Hamas members to prison for operating a covert weapons-stockpiling network across Europe, per Algemeiner.

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