German police have arrested three suspected members of Hamas, accused of making preparations for an attack against Jewish targets in Europe, prosecutors said.

According to AFP, the three men, along with another suspect arrested in the Netherlands, were said to have tried to gather weapons to be “kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe”, German federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Police arrested Egyptian citizen Mohamed B and two Lebanese-born men, Abdelhamid Al A and Ibrahim El-R in Berlin. In addition, the Dutch national Nazih R was detained by local police in Rotterdam, the prosecutors said.

The four were suspected of being “longstanding members of Hamas”. The group was said to have been “closely linked” to the leadership of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.