Former Hamas Bodyguard Convicted in UK Knife Attack

A court in Birmingham, United Kingdom, delivered a guilty verdict on Friday for Mohammed Alfatih, a former bodyguard to the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The 40-year-old defendant was convicted of attacking a court bailiff outside his home in October 2025. The trial concluded with Alfatih found guilty of unlawful wounding, possessing two knives, and causing criminal damage, though he was acquitted of the more serious charge of wounding with intent.

The incident began when bailiff Kevin Bucknall visited Alfatih’s residence to investigate unpaid parking fines totaling more than £2,250, which were owed by Alfatih’s wife. Video footage presented during the trial showed the defendant holding a knife near a broken van window. The confrontation left Bucknall with a cut to the back of his head. Alfatih is scheduled to be sentenced on January 11.

Following the conviction, the court permitted UK media outlets to release Alfatih’s full name. He had previously been known as Mohammed Naim and is the son of Basem Naim, a senior official in Hamas. The revelation of his identity confirms his status as the son of a prominent figure in the Palestinian movement.

Once he has served his sentence in the UK, Alfatih is expected to be extradited to Germany. German authorities issued an arrest warrant for him on October 16, 2025, at which time he was already in custody for the bailiff attack. In Germany, he will stand trial for allegedly orchestrating a terrorist plot targeting Jewish and Israeli sites in Germany and Austria. The plan was reportedly aimed at the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

Alfatih was born in Germany but was raised in Gaza, where he served as a bodyguard to Haniyeh in the early 2000s. He later moved to the United Kingdom amid claims of persecution by Egypt and was granted asylum in 2015. Five years later, he was granted British citizenship. At the time of his arrival, Britain only designated Hamas’s armed wing as a terrorist organization, while the political bureau was not proscribed until 2021. Haniyeh led the political bureau from 2017 until his assassination in Tehran in 2024.

A British government source described it as staggering that Alfatih was granted asylum and citizenship given his background. His connections to Hamas were first reported by The Times in September and were not disclosed to the jurors during the Birmingham trial.

The Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, previously identified Alfatih, referred to as Mohammed Naim, as the owner of weapons seized in Vienna during a multinational investigation. The agency stated that he helped procure weapons for three suspected Hamas operatives who were arrested in Berlin shortly before the second anniversary of the October 7 attack. The Mossad also noted that Alfatih met with his father in Qatar in September 2025, suggesting that Hamas leadership may have authorized and directed the terror activity in Europe. Members of Hamas in Turkey were also potentially involved in the planning stages.

The conviction marks a significant development in the ongoing legal proceedings against Alfatih, who is viewed as a key figure in a European Hamas cell planning attacks on Jewish targets.