Ismail Haniyeh's ex-bodyguard arrested for planning terror attack against European Jews - report

In 2015, he applied for asylum, and the British Home Office granted him permanent residency while Theresa May served as UK Home Secretary. He was later granted British citizenship.

A former bodyguard of assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was granted asylum and British citizenship, was arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack against Jewish communities and Israelis in Europe around the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, the Sunday Times reported on Saturday.

According to the British newspaper's investigation, the suspect, whose identity cannot be published for legal reasons and who is referred to as "Mr. X," served on Haniyeh's personal security detail in Gaza before moving to Britain more than a decade ago.

Although it was known when he received refugee status that he had worked for the leader of the terrorist organization and that he had previously been arrested in Egypt for operating a weapons-smuggling tunnel into Gaza, he was granted asylum in the UK.

Mr. X lived in England under the cover of working as an IT consultant, changed his legal name several times, and ostensibly led an ordinary life.

He now faces extradition to Germany, where he is accused of being a central figure in a plot to attack Jewish community centers, Israeli diplomats, and pro-Israel demonstrations in Germany or neighboring Austria. Officers from Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested him in central London last November after Israel's Mossad and German intelligence services uncovered the plot.

The indictment, first revealed by the German newspaper Bild, describes how Mr. X transported handguns, ammunition, and camouflage equipment from Berlin to Vienna.

He also recorded a video in advance in which he appeared masked and armed in front of a Hamas flag, describing the planned attack as an act of retaliation on behalf of the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades. A law enforcement official described him as a "vital figure" in the plot.

Mr. X given permanent residency, citizenship by UK

Mr. X arrived in Britain in 2012, when he apparently left the Gaza Strip for the last time. In 2015, he applied for asylum, and the British Home Office granted him permanent residency while Theresa May served as UK Home Secretary. He was later granted British citizenship.

In an unusual move, a judge at a London magistrate's court granted Mr. X an order barring publication of his name for 100 years. The decision was amended only last Thursday after an application by the Sunday Times, with the court ruling that his name could be published only after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against him being conducted concurrently in Britain.

German security officials have warned that the involvement of Mr. X, who was able to travel freely across Europe using his British passport, reflects a dangerous shift in Hamas's tactics as the terrorist organization seeks to expand the reach of its terrorist activity beyond the Middle East and into Europe.