A man has been arrested as part of an investigation by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command into online posts related to Palestinian political and military organisation Hamas.

On Monday, 29 April, police received a public referral in relation to online posts allegedly showing support for Hamas, which the UK government classifies as a terrorist group. 

The case was referred to specialist officers in the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit to assess the posts, before being passed to detectives within the Met's Counter Terrorism Command for further investigation.

On Tuesday, 14 May, a 47-year-old man was arrested in south west London on suspicion of showing support to a terrorist organisation, contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act, 2000.

He was taken into police custody while officers also carried out a search at an address, also in south west London, as part of the investigation.

The man was subsequently released from police custody and has been bailed to a date in early August while the police continue to investigate.

A Met Police spokesperson said the incident's specific location cannot be revealed due to the "inherent sensitivities" of live counterterrorism investigations.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "Since the terrible attacks in Israel last October, and throughout the ensuing conflict, we have seen a significant increase in the amount of extremist and terrorist material being referred to us by the public.

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"Every single referral gets assessed by specialist officers, and where we think terrorism offences could have been committed here in the UK, then we will always look to investigate, identify and arrest the person responsible and bring them to justice if we find evidence of a crime being committed."

Anyone wishing to report extremist or terrorist content can do so here.