Suspected Hamas terrorist ‘plotted European massacre’ from Birmingham

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By ANDY DOLAN, MIDLANDS CORRESPONDENT 12:15 13 Nov 2026, updated 18:35 13 Nov 2026

A suspected Hamas terrorist who was once a bodyguard for the militant group’s leader allegedly helped to plot a massacre on the Continent from his home in a suburban British street.

Mohammed Alfatih Naim, also known as Mohammed Alfatih, is accused by Germany of transporting handguns and ammunition from Berlin to a storage facility in Vienna as part of a network of at least eight Hamas operatives.

The father-of-four was granted asylum by Britain more than a decade ago and has been living in a cul-de-sac in Birmingham with his wife and three of his children.

Before moving to the UK, Alfatih acted as a bodyguard for then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and was regularly pictured by his side.

Alfatih is now set to face extradition to Germany, where he is suspected of playing a leading role in a plot to attack Jewish or Israeli targets to coincide with the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Alfatih’s arrest last autumn can be revealed after he was today convicted over a non-terrorist-related attack outside his terraced home on a visiting bailiff.

Alfatih, the son of senior Hamas member Bassem Naim, is believed to be the only person based in Britain to have allegedly participated in Hamas terror operations.

The IT consultant is thought to have entered Britain illegally. He was granted asylum by the UK in 2015 after citing persecution by Egypt, according to an Israeli government source.

But by then, his earlier work in Haniyeh’s personal security team was public knowledge, and an arrest in Egypt for operating a tunnel allegedly used to smuggle gold into Gaza had been publicised in the Middle East. Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel while visiting the Iranian capital Tehran in 2024.

The case raises questions for the government and security services over how Alfatih – who told jurors that he was granted citizenship in the UK six years ago – was able to settle and build a life in Britain despite his links to Hamas.

A German indictment against seven other alleged members of the Hamas network, who are already in German custody, details how Alfatih is alleged to have received a consignment of five guns in a handover at Berlin’s Hasenheide Park on July 28 last year.

On August 1 it is then alleged that he transported the weapons to Vienna, stashing the firearms and ‘disguise materials’, including a scarf, hat and gloves in a storage unit.

On August 25, Alfatih, who is due to be prosecuted in Germany separately from the other seven, allegedly flew back into Berlin, when a customs check detected a forged Greek identity document and driving licence in his possession, the indictment said.

That evening, investigators believe Alfatih met an alleged Hamas operative in Berlin to receive a consignment of ammunition in readiness for the planned attack.

German prosecutors allege Alfatih recorded a ‘confession video’ on behalf of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas’s military wing – which was intended to be published after the attack.

In the video he appeared masked and armed in front of a Hamas flag, and during a four-and-a-half-minute monologue promised ‘revenge’ for Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza, according to German media reports.

The indictment reveals that British police recovered the video on an SD card seized from Alfatih, and that a red polo shirt was also uncovered in his wardrobe at his home in the Kings Heath suburb of Birmingham. The legal paperwork said the shirt ‘appears to be the same shirt worn by the speaker in the claim-of-responsibility video’.

Investigators began making arrests on October 1 last year, when they observed a weapons handover involving other members of the alleged cell in a Berlin courtyard.

The arsenal included a fully automatic assault rifle, eight Glock 26 semi-automatic pistols, and more than 600 rounds of live ammunition.

The cell’s primary targets were thought to be Israeli diplomats, Jewish community centres and pro-Israel demonstrations.

The seven others arrested alongside Alfatih include two German citizens, a Dane, a Bulgarian and three Lebanese. German prosecutors accuse them of being members of Hamas and of preparing an attack.

German prosecutors argue that Alfatih was a ‘high-ranking Hamas foreign operative with direct links to the leadership circle of the Hamas Politburo’. The indictment notes that his father had been on the United States sanctions list since November 2024 ‘for supporting terrorism’ and suggests that Alfatih had advised him on American politics and Hamas ceasefire negotiations with Israel in August and September 2025.

Alfatih was arrested in connection with the German extradition warrant last November, while on remand for the attack on bailiff.

Extradition proceedings were stayed pending the conclusion of the trial, which was subject to reporting restrictions preventing Alfatih from being identified until the end of the case.

His eight-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard how debt enforcement officer Kevin Bucknall suffered a 1-2cm cut to the head when he was stabbed through his car window, having been chased from the defendant’s two-bedroom home on October 14 last year.

The bailiff had gone to the address to recover property to pay a debt which accrued when Alfatih’s wife failed to pay parking fines. Footage of the confrontation between Alfatih and the bailiff in the street outside his home was played in court.

Prosecutor Matthew Brook KC said that after Mr Bucknall retreated to his van, Alfatih went towards him with two kitchen knives and a rock, which he used to smash the driver’s window before lunging at Mr Bucknall with one of the knives.

Alfatih, 40, was convicted of wounding, two counts of having a bladed article and criminal damage. He was cleared of wounding with intent.

The defendant is due to be sentenced at a later date. He is expected to serve any custodial sentence in the UK before facing extradition to Germany.

But a previous court hearing was told the defendant was awaiting extradition to Germany ‘on allegations made under German law of terrorism offences linked to Hamas’ in the country.

Alfatih told the jury last week he had been raised in Gaza, where he said he was twice shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers, aged 16 and 20.

He said the first shooting happened in 2003 as he walked to school with his older brother, who died in the attack.

Asked what the impact of his upbringing in Gaza had been on him, he said: ‘Your way of looking to the light becomes completely different… it severely influences your character.’

He told the court that the day before the attack on Mr Bucknall, he found out his youngest brother had also died after being shot in Gaza.

Alfatih told jurors he was tortured for 25 days in Egypt during the final months of president Hosni Mubarak’s regime in 2010.

Defence witness Dr Mehdi Veisi, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told jurors Alfatih was suffering from PTSD as a result of his life experiences.

Dr Veisi said his brother’s death ‘kick-started’ his traumatic memories.

The defendant claimed he was acting in self-defence when he attacked Mr Bucknall.

‘I did not put hands on him,’ he told jurors. ‘I was dealing with my brother just dying, and now I’m dealing with a man in my house choking me… I was trying to defend my family, I had no intention for one second to harm anyone.’

But during a pre-trial hearing in April, Mr Brook submitted that the psychiatrist ‘had not been given the full picture’ about Alfatih’s background and revealed his phones contained ‘various Hamas material’.

He said open source pictures showed ‘that the defendant was a Hamas bodyguard in Gaza for the then-leader of Hamas’.

Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage.

Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, said previously that its investigation alongside European counterparts resulted in the arrest of members of a Hamas sleeper cell and weapons stockpiles ‘intended for use by Hamas cells to harm innocent civilians on command’.

Following the arrests in Germany last autumn, Israel described the alleged terror network as the ‘Hamas Octopus’.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘There can be no place in our society for those who engage in violence or seek to facilitate terrorist attacks against innocent people.

‘Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation, and we condemn those who choose to support its activities and further its aims.’

Additional reporting by Kristina Wemyss in Berlin, Rob Hyde in Bremen and Natalie Lisbona in Jerusalem

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