A Belgian dossier accuses a militiaman involved in the October 7 massacre of living and moving freely in the European Union. But no one knows how many other similar cases remain invisible.
The case of Mohannad al-Khatib risks turning into a watershed in the debate on European security and on the Union’s real ability to intercept those involved in the international jihadist terrorism. According to a report by the Belgian Center for Monitoring Anti-Semitism (JID), the man listed as a Hamas terrorist and directly involved in the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel lives today in Belgium and is free to move throughout Europe. An accusation which, if confirmed, would have enormous political and operational consequences. But above all it poses a question destined to remain suspended: How many other cases like this exist on the continent without anyone being able to say for sure?. The JID states that al-Khatib does not fall into the category of simple ideological supporters of Hamasbut in the much more serious one of those who have took part in the violence of 7 Octoberone of the bloodiest attacks of recent decades. The vice president of the organization, Ralph Paistold the Israeli channel Channel 12 that the Center had handed over a 65-page dossier to the authorities, containing evidence deemed significant of the direct involvement of man in the massacres perpetrated in southern Israel.
According to what was reported by the JID, the material collected would not be limited to generic reconstructions or indirect testimonies, but would include elements useful for identifying an active role of al-Khatib in the events of 7 October. A framework which, if validated by investigators, would call into question the effectiveness of European prevention and control mechanisms, especially in a context such as that of the Schengen space, where freedom of movement is one of the founding pillars. However, the issue does not only concern the past. The report accuses al-Khatib of having continued to operate from Belgium as an activist and propagandist, spreading anti-Israeli messages through social networks and through some media believed to be close to the pro-Hamas area. An activity which, according to the JID, would help keep alive a justificationist narrative of violence, fueling radicalization and hostility far beyond the Middle Eastern conflict. In other words, Europe is not only just a refuge, but also a communication platform.
And it is precisely here that the case takes on a systemic dimension. No European authority is today capable of provide a reliable estimate of the number of individuals involved in terrorist organizations located on the territory of the Union. There is no census, nor clear mapping of ex-combatants, militiamen or individuals directly implicated in war crimes who may have reached Europe in recent years exploiting control loopholes, fragmented asylum procedures and often insufficient intelligence cooperationThe fear, increasingly widespread among analysts and monitoring bodies, is that the case of al-Khatib is only one of the few that have emerged, while others remain submerged. People who do not attract attention because they do not act violently on European soil, but who maintain ideological, political or operational links with jihadist groups active abroad. A gray area that makes it extremely difficult to distinguish between humanitarian protection and security risk.
This scenario poses the European Union faced with an increasingly evident contradiction. On the one hand, Brussels claims a leading role in the fight against terrorism and in the defense of democratic values; on the other hand, cases like this fuel the perception of one dangerous underestimation of the threat. The undisturbed presence of individuals accused of having participated in terrorist massacres undermines citizens’ trust and reinforces the feeling of a system incapable of protecting its internal borders. JID it is now in the hands of the Belgian and European authorities. But, beyond the judicial outcome of the individual proceedings, a broader and unresolved question remains: how many Mohannad al-Khatib live in Europe today without having been identified? Until this question is given a transparent answer based on concrete data, the risk is that this case will remain not an exception, but the symbol of a structural vulnerability destined to weigh on the security of the continent for a long time.
