Greek police announced on Sunday morning that they had arrested a 37‑year‑old Palestinian man from Gaza who had received asylum in the country and was planning an imminent terror attack against Israeli targets on behalf of Hamas.

Reports about the planned attack, possibly against an Israeli passenger ship, are dominating Greek media headlines on Sunday.

The 37-year-old suspect, who arrived in Greece about a year ago, was arrested on Motzei Shabbos in Crete, where he worked as an electrician in a hotel. According to local police, he admitted during interrogation that he is an active Hamas member and that he was waiting for orders to carry out his plan and attack Israeli targets. Greek police have information linking him to four Palestinians recently arrested in Cyprus, suspected of being part of the same terror cell planning attacks.

The suspect was arrested by counter‑terrorism forces and the EYP (Greek National Intelligence Service) after 15 days of surveillance, in cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies. The investigation revealed that alongside his hotel job in Crete, he rented an apartment in the Patissia neighborhood of central Athens and turned it into an explosives laboratory.

Greek media report that one potential target was the Israeli cruise ship Crown Iris, scheduled to dock in Crete this Tuesday. Police sources, however, say there is still no direct evidence confirming that the ship was the intended target, and the investigation is ongoing.

The same ship was confronted last year in Crete by pro‑Hamas demonstrators who blocked Israeli passengers from disembarking, hurled stones at their buses, and made throat‑slitting gestures toward them.

According to reports, the detainee is originally from Gaza and has a wife and three children there. He was recruited by Hamas while living in the Strip and received explosives training there. Investigators in Greece discovered that he recently traveled with one of the four suspects arrested in Cyprus to Malaysia, where he received additional training in preparing synthetic explosives.

A search of his Athens apartment uncovered laboratory equipment — including liquid‑filling devices, precision scales, and chemical substances suitable for bomb‑making. Authorities believe he was awaiting additional materials he had ordered online to complete the device. Police seized mobile phones, a laptop, data storage devices, and bank cards from his residences in Athens and Crete.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)