CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler writes: "For far too long, European governments have comforted themselves with the assumption that Hamas terror attacks would remain confined towards targets in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The prevailing belief was that in Europe the group would concentrate on generating finances and building up political influence through catering towards its sympathisers.

European authorities were always clear about the general terrorist nature of Hamas. After all, the group’s Izz al-Din al-Qassem (IDQ) brigades was added to the EU Terrorist List in 2001, the year the list was created. The entire organisation was listed by the EU in 2003. The UK proscribed IDQ in 2001, but it took until 2021 for the British government to proscribe the entirety of Hamas. Nevertheless, the hope was that Europe may be spared from direct terror attacks by Hamas."