German police raided 15 properties around the country as part of its investigations into pro-Hamas individuals and groups amid the ongoing Gaza war.
Hundreds of police participated in the operations which were carried out in Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, and North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday.
Earlier this month, the German government officially banned any activity in support of Hamas, which had already been designated as a terrorist group in the country.
Following the ban, the activities of Samidoun, an international pro-Palestinian network, was also declared illegal after its celebrations in the streets of Berlin after Hamas’s deadly onslaught on Israel on October 7 which killed 1,200 mostly civilians and saw 240 more taken to Gaza.
“With the bans on Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any glorification or support of the barbaric terror of Hamas against Israel,” said German interior minister Nancy Faeser in a statement.
"We continue our consistent action against radical Islamists," she vowed, adding that “Islamists and antisemites cannot and must not feel safe anywhere here.”
According to Germany’s intelligence sources, around 450 Hamas members live in the country, helping finance the terror group.
Germany has beefed up security measures to protect its Jewish citizens who have been the targets of antisemitic attacks since October 7 as global antisemitism soars amidst the war.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist group by the European Union, the US, and many other Western countries.