What do you do when you're a terror organization whose home base is lacking opportunity?
Israeli authorities revealed on Wednesday that a major Hamas terror network operating across Europe has been exposed and dismantled through a series of joint operations between the Mossad and European intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
The network, described by Israeli officials as the “Hamas Octopus,” had been working to establish operational cells and weapons stockpiles for attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on European soil.
🚨 BREAKING The Mossad just dropped a bombshell, and this time it's not a pager:
— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) November 19, 2025
A Hamas terror network has been operating inside Europe, complete with weapons caches, explosives, and recruited operatives waiting for activation.
This isn’t hypothetical. It was ready to go.… pic.twitter.com/RXXUTk8u3q
Read the entire thread on X.
While the story has been evolving over the past few weeks, it's still a pretty troubling development: Hamas is apparently broadening its search for terror targets - while some of the usual suspects are still involved:
Recently foiled Hamas terrorist plots in Europe were planned in Qatar and possibly Turkey, the Mossad intelligence agency said Wednesday, detailing results of a lengthy probe into the busted schemes.
The spy agency said in a statement that it carried out the investigation alongside European counterparts that resulted in the arrest of terror suspects and weapons stockpiles “intended for use by Hamas cells to harm innocent civilians on command.”
It seems they're pretty serious about it:
Since the October 7 attacks, a string of arrests of Hamas operatives and, in some cases, their organized crime co-conspirators, across Europe have spurred authorities to warn not only of the possibility of terrorist attacks inspired by or in solidarity with Hamas, but of the possibility that Hamas itself may conduct terrorist attacks abroad—something the group has considered in the past but never before successfully carried out. However now, with its operational capabilities in Gaza badly damaged, and having crossed the threshold of carrying out a spectacular terrorist attack already, Hamas terrorist leadership—especially those based in Lebanon, where the group has set up an operational headquarters over the past several years—appears to be leaning toward taking the group in a new strategic direction at a time when popular support for the Palestinian cause is running high and Israel’s standing is falling. Israeli authorities also assess that Hamas sees potential tactical benefit to external operations as well, providing leverage for ceasefire negotiations by raising the costs for Israel of continuing the war against Hamas in Gaza.2
Israeli authorities were sufficiently concerned about the threat of Hamas attacks abroad that they issued an updated terrorist threat assessment this year in advance of the Jewish High Holidays, when many Israelis travel abroad. The threat assessment, issued by the Israeli National Security Council, warned Israeli travelers of terrorist threats, “led predominantly by Iran and Hamas,” targeting Israeli and Jewish targets, adding that “dozens of attacks have already been prevented.”3 Beyond the threats from Iran, the Israeli NSC specifically warned that “Hamas is also expanding its own activities beyond the war in Gaza to establish terrorist infrastructure and carry out terrorist attacks against Jews and Israelis abroad.”4 Two major Hamas cases had already been disrupted in Germany and Denmark, but within days of this new warning, another Hamas terrorist plot would be disrupted in Europe.
On October 1, 2025, the eve of the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, German authorities arrested three suspected Hamas operatives on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack in Germany. According to prosecutors, the accused were “foreign operators for the terrorist organization Hamas” who procured firearms and ammunition to be used in “assassination attacks” on Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany. According to German authorities, the suspects had been working on behalf of Hamas since the summer of 2025 and were charged with both “membership in a foreign terrorist organization and preparation of a serious act of violence endangering the state.”5 The weapons seized in Germany reportedly originated in Scandinavia, where Hamas ties to organized criminals had already been established.6
Like the villain in every horror movie, it takes a whole bunch of tries before they're really out of the game.
