Hamas member used UK passport to travel freely, meet terror operatives, transport weapons across borders
| Published: September 27, 2026
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A former bodyguard of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh received asylum in Britain, and later citizenship, before being arrested in connection with alleged terror plots against Jews in Europe, The Times reported Saturday.
The man, who was arrested in London last November, stands accused of leading terror plots to attack Jewish targets in Germany. At that time, he was reported to be the son of Hamas senior official Basem Naim.
At the time of his arrest, he was accused of transporting weapons as part of a plot to attack Jewish and Israeli targets in connection with the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Authorities arrested him along with six other alleged members of the plot.
In a joint effort involving German and Austrian security services, along with help from the Mossad, Austrian security officers discovered a cache of weapons in Vienna to be used in the terror plots.
The man, who was identified as “Mohammed A.” in the German arrest notice, had recorded a video describing the planned attacks. In the video, he appears masked and in front of a Hamas flag, while promising revenge for the “Qassam Brigades.” That video is believed to have been filmed in a Vienna apartment rented to Mohammed Alfatih.
In the video, he refers to the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
Under British law, authorities cannot reveal his full identity, as his lawyer argued this could prejudice his treatment in a separate criminal case in the UK. However, the German indictments reveal several identifying details.
The man was identified as a bodyguard of Hamas political leader Haniyeh as early as 2006, when Hamas won popular elections in the Palestinian territories.
He was identified traveling back and forth between Gaza and Europe in the period between 2009 and 2012, despite being detained in Egypt for operating a weapons-smuggling tunnel into Gaza.
He apparently left Gaza permanently in 2012 and eventually settled in Britain.
According to the Times report, during the same period, several Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrived in the UK, often claiming asylum, citing persecution by Egyptian authorities.
Mohammed A. Was granted asylum and indefinite leave to remain in the country in 2015, under the government of David Cameron. Some time later, he was granted citizenship based on his continued residency and legally changed his name more than once.
During this time, he presented himself as an IT consultant and lived in the suburbs of a large English city.
The terror plot, in which Mohammed A. was involved, was intended to coincide with the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel according to the report.
An anonymous security official who spoke with The Times, described Mohammed A. as a senior Hamas asset in the plot, who made extensive use of his British passport to travel to Qatar, Turkey and Egypt to meet with other senior Hamas leaders.
Both Qatar and Turkey host Hamas senior leaders and have hosted high-level meetings for Hamas leaders in exile.
Last July, according to a German indictment, he transported pistols, ammunition, hats, neck warmers and gloves from Berlin to the storage facility in Vienna, which served as the weapons cache for the terror plot.
Over the next couple of months, he was reported to have procured additional ammunition for those handguns, as well as a Crvena Zastava [a Yugoslavian Kalashnikov variant], along with eight Glock 26 semi-automatic pistols and around 600 rounds of ammunition.
One of the other six members of the plot was a German intelligence asset who had reportedly gone rogue and was withholding information about his role in the terror plots, German tabloid Bild reported.
The arrest of the members, and the discovery of the weapons cache, indicates that Hamas is possibly shifting its area of focus to Jewish and Israeli targets outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Germany’s chief federal prosecutor Jens Rommel, recently warned that “Germany and other European countries are now increasingly being viewed as operational areas for possible attacks.”
Previously, Hamas largely conducted fundraising and support operations in Europe, while keeping its terror operations restricted to attacks on targets in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
However, according to the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), following the outbreak of the Oct. 7 Gaza War, and especially the killings of Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, Hamas began to act on “concrete plans for the internationalization of terror” which it had already developed.
These included a base for training terror operatives in Turkey, and the establishment of terror cells in Europe, targeting Jewish and Israeli institutions.
“This becomes particularly evident in the case of Hamas,” Rommel continued. “To prepare attacks in Europe, their foreign operatives, sympathizers, or individuals connected to organized crime acquire and smuggle weapons.”
Rommel warned that these operatives appear to be using European passports, often granted via asylum requests, and Schengen agreements on travel to “move freely” inside Europe.
“They are highly mobile, extensively networked, and some possess significant financial resources,” he added.
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