A quiet storage facility in Vienna. A rural property in Orbaek, Denmark. A roadside plot outside Plovdiv, Bulgaria. For years, these unassuming locations across Europe held a deadly secret: buried caches of Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, silencers, and ammunition. These were not the weapons of local criminals but part of a long-term, strategic contingency plan laid by Hamas, designed to give the group the capacity to strike far beyond the borders of Gaza and the West Bank.
For decades, Hamas's military operations were geographically confined, focusing on Israel and the Palestinian territories. However, a series of high-profile arrests, disrupted plots, and intelligence disclosures over the past two years reveal a decisive and dangerous shift.
European and Israeli security officials now assess that Hamas, with its capabilities in Gaza severely degraded by war, has taken a strategic decision to "go global," actively plotting attacks on European soil. This marks a fundamental departure in the group's modus operandi and presents a complex new layer to the terrorism threat landscape facing the West.
From Contingency to Activation: Uncovering the European Network
The scale and sophistication of Hamas's European project became starkly apparent through a string of police and intelligence operations across the continent in 2024 and 2025. These actions revealed a network not of lone radicals, but of directed operatives with ties to the highest levels of Hamas's military command.
A Coordinated Campaign in Germany and Beyond
In October 2025, German authorities arrested three suspected Hamas operatives in Berlin on the eve of Yom Kippur, seizing an AK-47, a Glock pistol, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Prosecutors stated the cell, working on orders since that summer, was preparing "assassination attacks" on Israeli or Jewish institutions.
This plot was part of a wider web. In November 2025, a fifth suspect was arrested in Germany for allegedly supplying the cell with eight Glock pistols and a Kalashnikov. Simultaneously, British authorities arrested a man accused of transporting weapons from this network to Vienna, where Austrian intelligence subsequently discovered a suitcase containing five handguns and ammunition magazines in a storage facility. German media identified the arrested individual as the son of a senior Hamas official.
The Manchester Synagogue Attack
While not conclusively proven to be Hamas-directed, the deadly knife attack at a Manchester synagogue in October 2025, which occurred on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, underscored the volatile threat environment. The attack prompted MI5 and counter-terror police to enter a "heightened state of alert," with increased patrols at Jewish places of worship. It exemplified how the conflict in the Middle East can directly inspire or trigger violence in the UK, a risk security chiefs have long warned about.
These recent disruptions point to a deliberate strategy. An intelligence report cited by The Mirror suggests Hamas influence has spread to operatives in the **United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland**.
A Strategy Years in the Making
Crucially, this is not a new, desperate tactic born from recent battlefield losses. Court documents and intelligence assessments show Hamas began embedding this capability years before its October 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
According to German prosecutors, in April 2019—over four years before October 7—a Hamas operative based in Germany received orders from the Qassam Brigades in Lebanon to establish an arms depot in Bulgaria. The operative buried a box of small arms, photographed the location, and sent the coordinates to his handlers. He was later tasked with retrieving weapons from a similar pre-existing cache in Denmark.
Perhaps most tellingly, in the months **leading up to** the October 7 attack, Hamas activated this network. From June to December 2023, operatives made at least five trips to Poland attempting to locate another pre-positioned weapons cache, all while maintaining close contact with senior Hamas military officials in Lebanon. German authorities assess these European weapons caches "were to be made available in order to be able to emphasize the organization’s aims in other European countries, if necessary through attacks".
The "Why Now?" – A Calculated Strategic Shift
Several converging factors explain why Hamas is now pivoting toward external operations, a move it historically avoided.
1. Battlefield Degradation and a Need for Relevance: With its operational capabilities in Gaza "severely degraded" and "decimated" after two years of war, the group is under pressure to demonstrate resilience and maintain its profile. External attacks offer a way to project strength despite territorial losses.
2. A New Willingness for Strategic Risk: The unprecedented scale of the October 7 attack itself crossed a major threshold. Security analysts believe the group's leadership, particularly those based in Lebanon, has become "more willing to accept the strategic risks of external operations". Israeli officials also assess that Hamas may see such attacks as providing leverage in ceasefire negotiations by raising the international costs of the conflict.
3. Exploiting Established Infrastructure: The group is not starting from scratch. It is leveraging networks cultivated over years, including links to organized crime groups in Eastern Europe for sourcing weapons and drones. The model relies on "small, compartmented cells" and pre-positioned resources, making plots harder to detect.
4. The Regional Proxy Web: Intelligence indicates that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, have aided Hamas's expansion. This integration risks drawing Hamas "more deeply into a multi-organisation regional-terror apparatus".
The Future of the Threat
The trajectory of this threat remains fluid, hinging on developments in Gaza, internal Hamas politics, and Israel's continued targeting of its external leaders. While a ceasefire might temporarily suppress attack orders, the underlying networks in Europe are likely to remain intact, a latent capability ready for future activation.
For European security services, the challenge is multifaceted. They must contend with a shifting landscape where the threat now includes not just inspiration from overseas conflicts but also directed plots from a group with a newfound international ambition. As noted by counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt, the direct involvement of senior Hamas leaders in these European plots "has justifiably drawn law enforcement attention".
The buried weapons caches, once mere contingency plans, have been unearthed by investigators. The greater task now is to unearth and dismantle the full extent of the human network that controlled them—a network that has signaled its intent to bring the violence of the Middle East to the streets of Europe.
*Source*: Mirror Online
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