Hundreds of German police raided this Thursday the premises of several Islamist associations suspected of supporting the Lebanese pro-Iranian movement Hezbollahannounced the Ministry of the Interior.
“At a time when many Jews feel especially threatened”, Germany “will not tolerate Islamist propaganda nor anti-Semitic incitement hostile to Israel”the Minister of the Interior stated in a statement, Nancy Faeser.
The police operation targeted the call Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) and five other affiliated groups. All of them are suspected of supporting the Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah.
Germany considers Hezbollah a “terrorist organization”and banned its activities in the country in April 2020.
The raids occurred in 54 properties spread across seven regions in Germany.
Germany and other countries also fear an extension of the conflict that began on October 7 between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamasfocused right now on the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Hamas that has its stronghold in southern Lebanon, has crossed fire numerous times with Israel on the border since the start of the war.
The IZH controls the Imam Ali mosque in Hamburg. The German internal intelligence service suspects that from there “exercises a strong influence” on other mosques and associations, stated the Ministry of the Interior.
And in that context, “we clearly observe anti-Semitic and hostile tendencies towards Israelwhich are also spread on various media channels,” the ministry added.
The Hamburg authorities specified that the objective of the raids is to gather information to ban the IZH association, which has been in the sights of the authorities for years. Its vice president was recently expelled from Germany.
The head of the German government, Olaf Scholzhe recently promised protect Jews residing in the countrycommemorating a week ago the 85th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht.
All this in a context of resurgence of anti-Semitic incidents since the beginning of the war unleashed by the Hamas offensive in Israel.
(With information from EFE)
Source-www.infobae.com