Mohannad al-Khatib presents himself as a freelance journalist but investigators claim to have found images proving his presence on Israeli soil during the October 7 Hamas attacks on communities in the south of the country.
A Hamas terrorist who participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel lives currently in Belgium and is reportedly traveling freely throughout Europe, according to a report by JID, an Antwerp-based center for monitoring antisemitism.
The man, Mohannad al-Khatib, presents himself as a freelance journalist but investigators claim to have found images proving his presence on Israeli soil during the October 7 Hamas attacks on communities in the south of the country.
He can be seen in a video at a pro-Hamas rally in Brussels on October 11, 2025.
JID Vice President Ralph Pais told Israel’s Channel 12 that his organization had submitted a 65-page dossier to the authorities containing evidence of al-Khatib’s involvement in the massacres.
The report also accuses him of spreading anti-Israel propaganda from Belgium, particularly via social media and certain pro-Hamas media outlets.
Belgian authorities have so far not made any official comment on these revelations.
Belgian MP Denis Ducarme, from the Liberal MR party, said that he will ask the government in the Parliament how a terrorist who participated in the massacres had received a residence permit. ”I hope that the government will respond and start removing the permit,” Ducarme, who visited Israel last month on October 7 to mark his solidarity with the Israeli people, added.
Last week, in a video message to a symposium organized by the European Jewish Association in Krakow in the framework of the annual remembrance visit to Auschwitz, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever declared that he will always ”take full responsibility to safeguard the security and wellbeing of our Jewish community, in Antwerp, in Belgium and in Europe.”
In Austria, the domestic intelligence service discovered a weapons cache in Vienna suspected to be linked to the Hamas terrorist organization and intended for use in attacks against Israeli or Jewish targets in Europe, the government said Thursday.
“The Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN) has been conducting extensive, internationally coordinated investigations for several weeks into a globally active terrorist organization with ties to Hamas,” read the statement.
“The investigation has led to the suspicion that a group has brought weapons into Austria to stockpile them for potential terrorist attacks in Europe. According to the current state of the investigation, the primary targets of these attacks were Israeli or Jewish institutions in Europe,” the statement continued.