German police raid three newly banned groups linked to Hezbollah
Interior Ministry says organizations are suspected of raising funds for families of killed members of Iran-backed Lebanese terror movement
BERLIN — Police raided sites in seven German states on Wednesday as German authorities announced a ban on three groups linked to the Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah.
Germany’s Interior Ministry said the groups are suspected of raising funds for families of slain Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah, which is rooted in Lebanon’s Shiite community and has close ties to Iran, is an avowed enemy of Israel.
“Whoever supports terror won’t be safe in Germany,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement. “Regardless of what shape the support takes, they won’t find any place to retreat to in our country.”
The interior ministry said that searches were underway in a number of regional states in Germany.
According to German media reports, the operations had been carried in the states of Hamburg, Bremen, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.
Germany announced last year it was banning activities by Hezbollah’s political wing in Germany, a move welcomed by the United States and Israel.
German security officials estimate there are about 1,000 Hezbollah supporters in Germany.
Hezbollah is designated a terrorist group by Israel and much of the West.
Founded in the 1980s to fight Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, it has grown into Iran’s main regional proxy with operatives in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
The only Lebanese faction to have kept its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war, Hezbollah now has a more powerful arsenal than the Lebanese national army.
As Israel and Gaza Strip terror groups have clashed since last week in the worst violence in years, many eyes are trained on the Lebanese border for a Hezbollah reaction, but observers argue the Iran-backed movement is unlikely to risk an all-out conflict.
Incidents at the border in recent days have raised the temperature but, with Lebanon already on its knees amid a deep political and economic crisis, the Shiite group seems intent on refraining from an escalation.
In face of the renewed violence in the region, German authorities are concerned about a rise in anti-Semitism.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin resulted in clashes and arrests.
Last week, Israeli flags were burned in front of synagogues in Bonn and Muenster.
“Our democracy will not tolerate anti-Semitic demonstrations,” the spokesman for Angela Merkel had said at the time.
Last month German police raided several sites on suspicion of ties to Hezbollah after banning its political activities in the country.
