Germany Bans Hamas Activities After Israel Attack

Germany on Thursday issued a ban on Hamas activities and organisations linked to the group, which set off the war in Gaza with an attack on Israel last month.

"With Hamas, I have today completely banned the activities of a terrorist organisation that aims to destroy the state of Israel," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.

The minister also issued a prohibition for the organisation Samidoun, an international network that "spread anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda under the guise of a 'solidarity organisation' for prisoners", Faeser said.

The network had "supported and glorified various foreign terrorist organisations, among them Hamas," she said.

The organisation of supposedly spontaneous "celebrations" by Samidoun in response to Hamas's attack on October 7 showed its "anti-Semitic, inhumane worldview", she added.

Hamas gunmen stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel in the attack that Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, while more than 230 people were taken hostage.

In retaliation, Israel announced it would destroy Hamas and began a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and has since begun a ground offensive in Gaza.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says over 9,000 people, mainly civilians, have since been killed in Israeli air and ground attacks.

Germany has recorded hundreds of criminal offences in relation to the Israel-Hamas war since the outbreak of the conflict.

Among them have been a spate of anti-Semitic incidents, including when attackers hurled two Molotov cocktails at a Jewish synagogue in the capital.

In response, government figures have stressed "zero tolerance" for anti-Semitism in Germany, where the country's Nazi past weighs heavy.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck published a video on social media on Thursday, urging a tough response to anti-Semitism seen among Islamists, the far right and "parts of the political left".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)