Crime · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
Ismail Haniyeh’s Ex-Bodyguard Gets UK Citizenship, Faces Terror Charges Over Plot Against Jews
Ex-Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s former bodyguard obtained UK asylum and citizenship. He was arrested in London in November 2025 on suspicion of planning attacks.
Whether the focus is Hamas denial or UK vetting.
6 of 8 outlets skipped it: a judge ordered his name withheld for 100 years, later amended.
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The Times of India
“The report has also raised questions over how British authorities assessed Mr X’s background before granting him citizenship.”Read the original ↗
The Media Line emphasises Hamas denial, while The Times of India emphasises questions over UK citizenship vetting.
Plot, asylum, arrest
A former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, referred to as “Mr. X” for legal reasons, obtained asylum and citizenship in the United Kingdom before being captured in November while planning a terrorist attack against Jews in Europe, according to a police source cited by The Sunday Times.
The Times reported that Mr. X was detained in Egypt more than a decade ago for operating a weapon and gold smuggling tunnel to Gaza, before he moved to the United Kingdom, where he obtained refugee status and, later, citizenship and worked as an IT consultant.
The Times said Mr. X was arrested in central London in November as part of a multinational operation in which Mossad took part, with the operation aimed to thwart a Hamas terrorist attack on Jewish community centers, Israeli diplomatic missions, and pro-Israel demonstrations in Germany or Austria.
The Times reported that the attack was planned for October, coinciding with the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 massacre, and that Mr. X was facing extradition to Germany.
The accusation described Mr. X recording himself stating that the plans were carried out in the name of Hamas’s armed wing, with a Hamas flag in the background while he appeared masked and armed.
Targets and alleged role
Investigators alleged that the planned attacks could have targeted Jewish community centers, Israeli diplomats or pro-Israel gatherings in Germany or Austria around the second anniversary of the October 7 attack, according to i24NEWS citing The Sunday Times.
The indictment described Mr. X as recording a video while masked and armed, with a Hamas flag behind him, and it alleged he described the plot as retaliation on behalf of Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
The Jerusalem Post reported that officers from Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Mr. X in central London last November after Israel’s Mossad and German intelligence services uncovered the plot.
The Jerusalem Post said the indictment described how Mr. X transported handguns, ammunition, and camouflage equipment from Berlin to Vienna, and it said he also recorded a video in advance in which he appeared masked and armed in front of a Hamas flag.
A law enforcement official described Mr. X as a "vital figure" in the plot, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Legal status and politics
Hungarian Conservative said Britain granted asylum and citizenship to a former bodyguard of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who then became involved in an alleged terrorist plot targeting Jews across Europe, according to an investigation published by The Times on 26 September.
Hungarian Conservative reported that German federal prosecutors allege the man collected five pistols and ammunition during meetings in Berlin before transporting the weapons to Vienna, where they were stored for planned attacks against Jewish and Israeli institutions.
Hungarian Conservative said Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the case and renewed calls for tougher citizenship and deportation rules, warning that Britain’s laws, kindness and generosity were being exploited.
Hungarian Conservative reported that Reform UK MP James McMurdock questioned how the former Hamas bodyguard had successfully claimed asylum and obtained a British passport, directing his criticism at former Conservative minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The Jerusalem Post said a judge at a London magistrate's court granted Mr. X an order barring publication of his name for 100 years, and it said the decision was amended only last Thursday after an application by the Sunday Times.