Updated

The Jerusalem Post published an explainer examining multiple individuals alleged to have links to Hamas and their immigration status in Britain, including Mohammed Al-Fatah, whose asylum and citizenship were revealed on November 13. Al-Fatah, 40, a former bodyguard of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of wounding a bailiff, possessing knives and criminal damage, while a British counterterrorism unit was already surveilling him. He is also wanted in Germany over an alleged Hamas plot against Israelis and Jews in Europe. He arrived in 2014, gained asylum in 2015 and citizenship in 2020. The report describes alleged Hamas activity in Britain stretching back decades. Muhammad Sawalha, also known as Abu Obada, is described in a 2019 Israeli government report as a senior Hamas military official in the West Bank in the late 1980s who fled to Jordan on forged documents in 1990 before reaching Britain. A 2004 US Justice Department release named him a co-conspirator in a Hamas financing indictment, and a 2013 Sunday Times investigation reported he had British citizenship and a discounted former council home in Colindale. Zaher Birawi, a Barnet resident, is designated by the US Treasury's OFAC and was sanctioned in January 2026; the Post reported that he has rejected allegations that he is a Hamas operative, and could not confirm his nationality or refugee status.