Hamas organizing pro-Palestinian protests, raising funds in Netherlands, Dutch intelligence says

The AIVD annual report for 2025 assessed that Hamas was involved with the groups that organized pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The AIVD said that while in 2025 these protests didn't lead to violent incidents, they could lead to divisions within society.

The Hamas network involved in demonstrations has been active in propaganda, lobbying, and fundraising for the terrorist organization for years, according to the AIVD. Part of a broader European Hamas network, the report shared that about ten people have been linked to the cells.

AIVD is also investigating potential national security threats posed to Hamas following a series of arrests across Europe in relation to Lebanese Hamas cells seeking to attack Jewish or Israeli targets on the continent.

The national security threat posed by left-wing extremism, for whom the war in Gaza was an important topic, was perceived by the AIVD to be minor. Marxist Leninist and anarchist extremists opposed Israel, leading to diverse demonstration compositions. They found common ground with Palestinian, Islamic, climate, and anti-imperialist activists.

Samidoun Netherlands, an alleged Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine branch, was given special attention by the AIVD for its role in the cross-pollination of different species of extremism. AIVD said the threat they posed was limited, but their propaganda could lead to radicalization and polarization.

"The organization does not call for violence, but it does glorify violence against Israelis and the Israeli state, for example, by legitimizing the actions of terrorist organizations," AIVD said of the group sanctioned in Germany, Canada, and the US. "Although Samidoun's following in the Netherlands is small, this extremist message resonates more broadly."

While the broad left-wing extremist alliance didn't explicitly target Jewish residents or institutions, the AIVD said that there was a "strikingly" large number of graffiti and vandalism attacks on companies and government buildings related to the belief that they were involved in arms deliveries to Israel or had ties to Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. Windows were frequently smashed, and sites were covered in paint.

Most of the jihadist threat in the Netherlands came from ISIS, according to the AIVD, some who are connected directly to the Islamist group and others who are inspired. The Dutch intelligence organization issued nineteen reports regarding potential jihadists, eleven of them which indicated impending violence and led to arrests. In May, two Syrian men were arrested for being former ISIS members, and in July, a Tajik ISKP operative was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for membership and financing with the terrorist organization.

AIVD also warned about the normalization of right-wing extremism with the goal of establishing a white ethnostate. In 2025, the AIVD reportedly issued reports about eight individuals who posed a violent threat.

"The AIVD observes that there is a major, persistent espionage threat emanating from intelligence and security services in countries such as Russia, China, and Iran, but also from services in countries with a large diaspora community in the Netherlands, such as Morocco."