Libyan Suspected of Planning Attack on Israeli Embassy Arrested in Germany.

By Caroline Ameh

German authorities have arrested a Libyan man with suspected ties to the extremist group Islamic State who was allegedly planning an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Berlin.

Police and other security forces detained the man on Saturday evening in Bernau, a town just outside of Berlin, and searched his home there, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

The prosecutor’s office said the suspect was a Libyan national whom they identified only as Omar A.

“He intended to carry out a high-profile attack with firearms on the Israeli Embassy in Berlin,” the statement said. In his planning, the statement added, “the accused exchanged information with a member of IS in a messenger chat,” referring to the militant Sunni group Islamic State.

Security forces also searched the home of another person who is considered a witness and not a suspect, the prosecutor’s statement said.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that German security authorities “struck in time to thwart possible plans to attack the Israeli Embassy in Berlin.”

“This shows that protecting Jewish and Israeli institutions in our country is vital and of the utmost importance to us,” she added.

The suspect was expected to be brought before an investigating judge at the country’s highest court, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, on Sunday, the prosecutor’s office said.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor thanked the German security authorities “for ensuring the security of our embassy,” dpa reported.

News of the case first came from the Bild newspaper, which reported that a heavily armed elite police unit stormed the suspect’s home in Bernau. It said German authorities acted after receiving a tipoff from an unspecified foreign intelligence agency.

“We are acting with the utmost vigilance and attention in view of the high threat posed by Islamist, antisemitic and anti-Israel violence,” Faeser said.

German authorities arrested Omar A. after a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency, according to local media, adding that he had not been on any militant watchlist in Germany.

The suspect was said to have entered Germany in November 2022 and to have made a request for asylum the following January, according to a government source.

This was rejected in September 2023, meaning Omar A. would have been required to leave the country, the source said.

The suspect’s immigration status is similar to that of the alleged perpetrator of a deadly stabbing at a festival in Germany in August.

The attack in the western city of Solingen, which left three people dead, caused public outrage after it was revealed that the Syrian suspect had evaded authorities’ attempts to remove him from Germany.

The government in Berlin has responded with stricter knife laws and a tougher line on immigration. MPs on Friday passed rules which remove benefits offered to asylum seekers who are set to be deported to other EU countries.