Israel provided more detail on Thursday regarding the arrest by Danish authorities of suspects in a terror plot, revealing that seven operatives acting on behalf of Hamas were involved in a planned attack aimed at killing innocent civilians on European soil.
“In recent years, and even more so after the murderous attack on Oct. 7, Hamas strives to expand its operational capabilities around the world and in Europe, in particular, in order to realize its ambitions to hit Israeli, Jewish and Western targets at any cost,” the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem said in a statement.
Danish police arrested several people early on Thursday morning suspected of planning terrorist attacks, two days after the Netherlands raised its terror alert level to “substantial.”
The arrests involved coordination between the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) and police districts across the Scandinavian country, police said in a statement.
Speaking from a European Union summit in Brussels, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the facts of the case were “extremely serious.”
Denmark is currently at threat level four, the second highest.
Denmark at the beginning of December ordered its military to protect the synagogue in Copenhagen, the Israeli embassy and other Jewish sites in the country.
“The terrorist threat against Denmark is serious,” stated Troels Lund Poulsen, the defense minister. “The conflict in the Middle East has led to a completely unacceptable rise in antisemitism and more uncertainty among Jews in Denmark.”
European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson earlier this month warned that the bloc is facing an increasing threat of terrorist violence during the Christmas holiday related to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
“With the war between Israel and Hamas and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union,” she said.
