Hamas planned ‘second October 7’ across Europe with weapons caches, sleeper c

For years, security experts largely assumed Hamas posed a direct terrorist threat only to Israel. A series of investigations stretching from Athens to Berlin now suggests that assessment may have been dangerously wrong. According to an investigation published by the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Hamas had spent years building an operational network in Europe and was allegedly preparing attacks against Jewish, Israeli and Western targets across the continent. The newspaper described the plans as an attempt to carry out what could have become a “second October 7” on European soil. The latest evidence emerged in early June, when a Greek special forces unit arrested a 37-year-old Egyptian man of Palestinian origin at 5 a.m. in the Cretan resort town of Agios Nikolaos. The man, identified by some Greek media outlets as Motasem, had recently begun working as an electrician at a luxury hotel.