A former bodyguard of assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh allegedly helped plan attacks on Israeli-linked targets in Europe after he was granted asylum and later British citizenship.
The man joined Haniyeh’s security detail shortly after Hamas won the January 2006 Palestinian legislative election. The militant group secured 76 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, after which Haniyeh became prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024. That changed in November 2021, when the UK extended the ban to the entire organisation, including its political wing. On November 3, 2025, German prosecutors said British national Mohammed A had been arrested in London under a German arrest warrant. During the summer of 2025, Mohammed A reportedly met another suspect in Berlin and took possession of five pistols and ammunition.
The Home Office said the distinction between Hamas’s political and military wings was “artificial”. German authorities said the weapons were intended for possible attacks on Israeli institutions in Germany and other European countries. He was in Iran for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. The change meant that membership of Hamas, or support for the organisation, became a criminal offence under UK law. They accused him of being a member of Hamas. He allegedly transported the weapons to Austria and placed them in a storage facility in Vienna.
