A former bodyguard of Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas political leader, was arrested in London in November 2025 after Israel’s Mossad and German intelligence reportedly uncovered a suspected plot targeting Jewish community centers, Israeli diplomats and pro-Israel demonstrations in Germany or Austria. The Sunday Times identified the man only as “Mr X” because of legal restrictions on naming him. The account relies on the newspaper’s reporting, security sources and charging documents; the allegations have not been established as proven facts.
The newspaper says Mr X joined Haniyeh’s security detail in 2006. Between 2009 and 2012, he allegedly traveled through Egypt and was arrested there after being linked to a tunnel used to smuggle weapons and gold into Gaza. He left Gaza in 2012; his movements afterward are not known until he reached Britain. In 2015 he sought asylum, received permission to remain and later obtained British citizenship after settling with his wife and children.
The Sunday Times says he presented himself in Britain as an IT consultant and lived in the suburbs of a large English city. It reports that he changed his name several times, took part in demonstrations against Israel, rated businesses online and set up companies. The paper says he used his British passport to travel to Turkey and Qatar.
In Germany, Mr X is accused of smuggling weapons, including firearms and ammunition, to a storage site in Vienna. An indictment first reported by Bild alleges that in July 2025 he moved five pistols, ammunition, woollen hats and gloves from Berlin to Vienna. A month later he allegedly received 100 rounds; weeks after that, an associate allegedly obtained a Yugoslav-made Kalashnikov variant, eight pistols and 600 rounds.
The report says a video recorded by Mr X was found at one of the locations searched. In it, he allegedly appeared masked and armed beside a Hamas flag and described the planned attack as an act of revenge timed for the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. Seven suspects were arrested in an operation involving Germany, Austria, Denmark and Britain: two German citizens, three Lebanese citizens, one Bulgarian citizen and one Danish citizen. It remains unclear whether Mr X intended to take part directly in an attack suspected to have been planned for Berlin or Vienna.
If convicted, he could serve a prison term in Britain before facing extradition to Germany. A law-enforcement source described him as a key figure in planning but provided no further detail. The report also says another suspect was a German intelligence source who had gone rogue and concealed the extent of his role; that person has not been identified.
The article places the case against the background of Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran in July 2024, hours after he attended the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. The New York Times later reported that he was killed by a remotely detonated explosive device secretly brought into and planted weeks earlier at a guesthouse run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.