Following the indictment of a suspected Hamas member from Gaza in Crete, Greece’s homeland security minister on Monday implied the suspect was a member of a terror network that targeted Israeli tourists.
Greek Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis made the remarks during an interview with the Action24 television news station about the indictment Monday of a 37-year-old man who is accused of belonging to Hamas and training for carrying out terrorist attacks, the Athens News Agency reported. The man was arrested during the weekend.
Chrisochoidis said defendant, whose name has not been published in the Greek media, has already confessed to preparing for a terrorist action in a European country, following training received in Malaysia.
The man, who is a Palestinian, was arrested on Saturday in Crete, where had been working at a hotel, the report said. He left Gaza and settled in Greece last year on an asylum-seeker visa, it added.
Asked whether the man had accomplices, Chrisochoidis said: “I believe they will all be found,” adding: “That which concerns us is whether the networks that carry out terrorist strikes on Israeli and Jewish targets have spread or are preparing to spread. We are a tourist destination, we receive thousands of Israeli citizens, you can appreciate how dangerous and threatening all this is.”
Israel’s National Security Council classifies Greece as a country with “occasional threats” where Israelis are advised to “take increased security measures.” The classification, the second highest risk level out of four, is identitical to that applied to other E.U. member states, including Germany, the Netherlands, France and Sweden, and also Canada and Australia. The United States, Argentina and Mexico are classified among the countries with the lowest level of risk.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, European security services have uncovered several alleged Hamas plots and networks. In Germany, authorities arrested four suspected Hamas operatives in 2023 and later charged them with maintaining weapons caches across Europe for use in attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets.
A separate German operation in 2025 led to the arrest of additional suspects and the seizure of firearms and ammunition allegedly intended for attacks on Jewish institutions. Danish authorities have also linked Hamas to a foiled terror plot targeting Jewish sites.
