German police arrest suspected ISIS member planning attack on Israeli embassy

German police have arrested a 28-year-old Libyan man suspected of having connections to the Islamic State group and allegedly planning an attack on the Israeli embassy in Berlin.

Federal prosecutors confirmed the arrest on October 19, revealing that authorities acted on a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

It is alleged that he planned to leave the country after the attack.

"There is some suggestion he had planned an attack on the Israeli embassy in Berlin," a spokesman for the prosecutor's office stated. The suspect was apprehended during a police operation in a flat in Bernau, located north of Berlin.

In response to the situation, Israel's ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, expressed gratitude to German authorities for their efforts to secure the embassy, thanking them via the social media platform X.

In early October, the German Interior Ministry reported an increase in anti-Semitic incidents. The ministry noted that since October 2023, the number of crimes committed on the grounds of anti-Semitism has doubled.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which ignited the current conflict in the Gaza Strip, German officials have heightened their vigilance against Islamist militant threats and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, similar to trends observed in many countries globally.

This arrest follows an incident earlier in September when Munich police shot and killed a young Austrian man linked to radical Islamism after he opened fire at the Israeli consulate. 

By Khagan Isayev