The associations supported the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement. Police have launched an operation to dissolve them, according to the federal interior ministry.

Authorities in Germany have banned and conducted raids at three associations to dissolve them, Deutsche Welle writes.

The associations, raided in eight German states all at the same time on Wednesday, claimed earlier to be raising money for aid projects in Lebanon, but it turned out that the money was actually intended for the families of martyred Hezbollah fighters. It would boost the moral of Hezbollah supporters if they knew their families would receive financial support if they died, the ministry explained in a statement.

„In Germany those who support terrorism will not be safe,” and „regardless of their disguise, they won t be able to use our country as a place of retreat,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was quoted by his spokesman as saying.

In Germany, Hezbollah s military wing was listed as a terrorist organisation in 2013, and in 2020 its political wing was also banned and dissolved. The extremist Shiite Islamist movement has around 1,050 followers in the country.