Alleged ISIS supporter suspected of plot to attack Israeli embassy arrested in Germany
Reports say suspect is Libyan national who entered Germany in November 2022 and was denied asylum last year; arrest came after alerts from unspecified foreign intelligence services
BERLIN, Germany – German security forces arrested a Libyan national on Saturday on suspicion of planning a terror attack on Israel’s embassy in Berlin, according to the Bild daily.
The news outlet reported that police commandos had stormed a flat in Bernau north of Berlin in the evening and taken the 28-year-old man into custody.
The report said the suspect was collared in a town near the German capital and is believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State terror group, adding that the arrest came after alerts from unspecified foreign intelligence services.
The Spiegel daily said the man was identified only as Omar A. and that he would face a judge on Sunday.
Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, thanked German authorities for “ensuring the security of our embassy” in a message on the social media platform X.
“Muslim antisemitism is not limited to hateful rhetoric, but fuels global terrorism,” he wrote. “Israeli embassy staff are particularly at risk because they are on the frontlines of diplomacy.”
Attacks targeted the Israeli embassies in Copenhagen and Stockholm in early October.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the Gaza war, German authorities have increased their vigilance against Islamist terror threats and the resurgence of antisemitism, like many countries around the world.
In early September, Munich police shot dead a young Austrian man known for his links to radical Islamism after he opened fire at the Israeli consulate and on police.
More than 3,200 crimes motivated by antisemitism have been recorded by police in Germany in the last year since early October of 2023, roughly double the figure for the same period last year.
‘Threat level high’
Bild said that in Saturday’s operation, a second flat was searched and witnesses were questioned at an apartment block in Sankt Augustin near the western city of Bonn.
The flat belonged to the suspect’s uncle, who was not detained and was treated as a witness, it said.
It was believed the alleged ISIS follower may have planned to head there after the attack before fleeing the country.
Bild said the Libyan man was thought to have entered Germany in November 2022 and to have made a request for asylum the following January, which was rejected in September 2023.
Germany has been shocked by a string of recent attacks by asylum seekers that have fueled the rise of the far right and heaped pressure on the government.
Three people were killed in a stabbing spree in August at a festival in the western city of Solingen.
The suspect, a 26-year-old Syrian man with suspected links to ISIS, had been slated for deportation but evaded authorities’ attempts to remove him.
“The threat level of Islamist and antisemitic violence is high,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on the first anniversary of the October 7 attack.
With the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) making ground in regional elections, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has toughened its stance on new arrivals.
Germany has vastly extended border controls to the frontiers with all nine of its neighbors, temporarily suspending elements of the EU’s free movement rules.
The German parliament approved on Friday curbs to the benefits offered to asylum seekers, as Berlin followed other European countries in taking a stricter line on migration.
MPs backed plans to withdraw social support from asylum seekers who were already registered in another EU member state and are slated for deportation.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.