Syrian charged with planning attack on Jews and ‘infidels’ in Berlin

BERLIN, Germany — German prosecutors have charged a 23-year-old Syrian man with allegedly plotting a knife attack on “infidels” and Jews in Berlin, authorities said in a statement Tuesday.

The unidentified man allegedly bought a knife and materials to build explosives off the internet, and looked up content about “martyrdom” and “jihad” on social media platforms like Telegram and TikTok, prosecutors said.

He faces charges of preparing a terrorist offense and financing terrorism, as well as disseminating propaganda materials of terrorist organizations.

The man was arrested on November 1, and has been in detention since. Authorities did not identify him by name, but said that he arrived in Germany in December 2023 as an asylum seeker.

The man allegedly began plotting the attack in March 2025, and had hoped to build an explosive vest for a suicide attack.

Prosecutors said he discussed his plans with at least one other person.

The propaganda charges are related to a number of videos the man allegedly posted online that were set to jihadist battle songs associated with the Islamic State and other jihadist groups.

Last month, a German court convicted a Syrian man of stabbing and seriously wounding a Spanish tourist at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial in February 2025, and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

In that instance, the defendant said during his trial that he had regretted the attack immediately, and asserted that he had traveled to Berlin under pressure from an online acquaintance he had gotten to know as he watched ISIS videos.

Antisemitism has been on the rise in Germany since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the two-year war in Gaza.

In 2025, police in Berlin recorded a record 2,267 antisemitic crimes in 2025, a sharp increase from 1,825 cases in 2024 and 900 in 2023, according to German daily Tagesspiegel.