A former bodyguard of eliminated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was granted political asylum and subsequently British citizenship, was arrested in London last year on suspicion of involvement in orchestrating terror attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets across Europe, Britain’s Sunday Times reported on Saturday.
The operative, identified in reports only as “Mr. X” due to strict British legal reporting restrictions, is the son of a senior Hamas figure and, according to intelligence sources, served in Haniyeh’s personal security detail. According to the newspaper, despite his extensive operational past within the terror organization, he was granted permission to settle in the UK under refugee status in 2015 and eventually naturalized as a British citizen.
1+The report details that “X” was embedded within Haniyeh’s protection detail as early as 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections and subsequently seized control of the Gaza Strip in a violent coup. Between 2009 and 2012, he operated in Egypt, where he was detained by local authorities after being tied to cross-border smuggling tunnels used to funnel weapons and gold into Gaza.
In 2012, he left Gaza, and his trajectory over the subsequent three years remains largely obscured. By 2015, he entered the UK, secured asylum, and obtained a British passport. According to the Sunday Times, he resided with his wife and children in the suburbs of a major English city, ostensibly maintaining a career as an IT consultant.
1+Outwardly, he led a seemingly ordinary life: incorporating private companies, posting online consumer business reviews, and attending anti-Israel demonstrations. In reality, however, security sources allege he remained a vital clandestine asset for Hamas, repeatedly altering his legal name to evade surveillance. Last November, he was arrested in London after the Mossad and German intelligence services uncovered, according to the report, a plan to attack Jewish community centers, Israeli diplomats, and pro-Israel demonstrations in Germany or Austria.
The report further reveals that in Germany, “X” is accused of transferring weapons, including pistols and ammunition, to a warehouse in Vienna. According to the indictment, first published in the German newspaper Bild, in July 2025 he transferred five pistols, ammunition, wool hats, and gloves from Berlin to Vienna. A month later, it’s alleged, he received 100 rounds of ammunition. Several weeks after that, one of his accomplices obtained a Yugoslav-model Kalashnikov rifle, eight pistols, and 600 bullets.
In one of the raids, investigators found a video that, according to the report, was apparently filmed in Vienna, showing “X” masked and armed alongside a Hamas flag. In the video, he presented the planned attack as an “act of revenge” on behalf of Hamas’s military wing, intended to be carried out to mark two years since the October 7 massacre—a detail that helped German authorities trace the motive and timing of the plot.
If convicted, “X” is expected to serve a prison sentence in Britain first, then face extradition proceedings to Germany. A source quoted in the paper described him as a “senior asset” for Hamas, and claimed he exploited his citizenship and British passport to travel to Turkey and Qatar, where senior members of the organization reside and operate.