Islamists raided in northern Germany in 'targeted strike'

The city of Hamburg police's state security service has carried out raids in several flats targeting Islamists in northern Germany.

The background to the searches on Tuesday is an investigation into three German nationals aged 29, 32 and 41 years old, who are alleged to have published criminal messages about the Gaza war on social media, the police said.

Residential addresses in the Hamburg districts of Lohbrügge, Billstedt, Eidelstedt and in the city of Bremerhaven to the west of Hamburg were searched.

"We are keeping up the pressure and are continuing to take action against the Islamist scene very consistently and with all the means of the rule of law," the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper cited the city official responsible for the interior, Andy Grote, as saying about the raids.

"Today's raids against Muslim Interactive are another targeted strike against a scene that is trying to connect with society, especially in the digital space, following the searches in November," he said.

"We will not let up and, wherever possible, we will take away any space they have to develop here."

At the end of October, an unregistered pro-Palestinian gathering took place on the Steindamm main thoroughfare in Hamburg's Sankt Georg district.

As part of the investigation, the public prosecutor's office had already obtained several search warrants at the beginning of November.

Now the police have executed new search warrants on two men - both German citizens aged 22 and 28 years old - who are suspected of having attacked police officers during the gathering.

Islamist groups such as Muslim Interactive should be viewed separately from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Thomas Haldenwang, the president of Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, recently said about the group.

These Islamists were merely using the Gaza war to spread their narrative of the "infidel West, which allegedly wants to oppress Muslims and force them to assimilate," Haldenwang said.