Israel charged on On January 13, 2024, that Hamas intended to strike its embassy in Sweden as part of the Palestinian organization’s European expansion, after authorities there announced the arrest of many suspects last month.
Following the announcement of arrests by German, Swedish, and Danish officials, Israel’s Mossad intelligence service named an accused member of the Hamas network in Sweden in a statement, though it did not clarify if he was also being held.
Hamas did not immediately respond, despite having previously declared that it would only launch assaults on Israel, the occupied West Bank, and the Gaza Strip—all areas in which it aspires to establish a Palestinian state.
Though it did not address the specific security of Israel’s embassy, the diplomatic Ministry in Stockholm stated that “Sweden takes its commitments under the Vienna Convention to protect foreign missions very seriously.”
The Mossad statement stated a multi-national investigation gathered information that the Hamas network accepted orders from a group command post in Lebanon and had “intent to attack the Israeli embassy in Sweden, to procure paragliders and to activate members of criminal groups in Europe”.
