A man has been arrested as part of an investigation into online posts related to proscribed terrorist group Hamas.

On Monday, April, 29 police received a public referral in relation to online posts allegedly showing support for Hamas.

The matter was referred to specialist officers in the national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit to assess the posts, and subsequently passed to detectives within the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command for further investigation.

On Tuesday (May 14), 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 and officers also carried out a search at an address in the area as part of the investigation.

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

Investigations continue.

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.

“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.”