As his dinghy is picked up in the Channel, Palestinian Abu Wadee makes a victory sign and declares: ‘Thank God, we arrived in Britain.’
However, Wadee is not an innocent escaping the terrors of Gaza. Instead, he is a militant who has advocated for the mass killing of all Jewish people and has been photographed in a threatening manner with AK-47s, as revealed by The Mail on Sunday.
This individual used to be a prominent member of a group that has instilled fear in Israel. He has recorded himself proclaiming violent intentions towards Jews and has shared numerous images portraying violent confrontations with the Israeli Defense Forces.
In one sickening video, posted on his Facebook page last September, he is filmed calling for Allah to ‘punish [Jews] completely’.
‘Allah, it is your duty to exterminate the Jews and anyone who supports them,’ he was quoted saying, as translated by the research institution Camera for this publication.
‘Allah, kill them one by one, and don’t leave a single one. Allah, destroy them completely, disperse them completely and make the earth fall from under their feet.’
The Home Office last night refused to say whether they were aware of Wadee’s militant background or whether he was free to roam the streets. Kent Police said they were unaware of any arrests related to the case.
Senior politicians and security experts have reacted with horror at our revelations and demanded Wadee’s immediate arrest.
Wadee’s case heaps fresh pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to get a grip on the migrant crisis, after more than 1,600 people arrived by small boats last week alone.
Home Office officials have previously admitted they do not know the whereabouts of thousands of those who have illegally crossed the Channel.
Tory justice spokesman Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, said: ‘Abu Wadee is clearly a threat to the British people.
‘The police and security services are stretched as it is without dangerous men like this who appear to hold extremist sympathies to deal with. He needs to be deported immediately.’
Colonel Philip Ingram, a former Army intelligence officer, said: ‘He is a significant terror threat to the UK and is someone who should be arrested immediately. I would hope that security services are all over him. If he is here, there are likely to be more. This is one of the most worrying reports I have seen in a long time.’
Wadee is believed to be in his mid-thirties and from the city of Khan Yunis in Gaza.
Although he fled the territory before the massacres Hamas carried out on October 7, 2023, he appears to have been a prominent member of the so-called ‘Tyre-Burning Unit’, a militant group of Palestinian extremists who before the outbreak of war regularly hurled fire-bombs and rocks at Israeli forces manning the border with Gaza.
The group also revelled in launching airborne arson attacks in which they fired incendiary objects across the border.
In an interview in April 2018 unearthed by the MoS, Wadee, whose full name is believed to be Mus’ab Abd al-Kareem al-Qassas, boasted to Hamas-affiliated newspaper Felesteen about terrorising Israel by sending improvised incendiary kites across the border.
‘[It] only costs us three shekels, [65p] but it costs the occupation (Israel) more because of the fires it causes,’ he said. ‘We try to come up with new surprises.
‘It is known that we started with [throwing] stones, moved to burning tyres and setting the Israeli flag on fire, and then used kites.’
In one shocking picture, posted on his Facebook account in March 2021, Wadee stared into the camera while smoking a cigarette and brandishing a powerful assault rifle with a telescopic sight.
Last night Acume Forensic, a leading digital analytic company, confirmed that the picture of the gunman matched the footage of the migrant in the boat. Both were posted to Wadee’s Facebook page.
‘Based on the imagery we would be confident that the individual on the boat is the same individual shown in the image with the firearm,’ a spokesman said.
Another picture showed Wadee crouching with two Kalashnikov AK-47s, while a third showed him nonchalantly wielding a gun while sitting in a car.
The brazen militant also posed alongside seven masked men and a high-explosive artillery shell that was covered in pictures of gunmen apparently killed in clashes with Israel.
Accompanying the picture, posted in January 2021, he wrote: ‘We are the ones who ignite it for the sake of Al-Aqsa, and we do not fear death. Our souls are cheap for you, our beloved Al-Aqsa.’
The comment appear to be a reference to the feared Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade: a militant group that took part in the October 7 massacres and which is listed as a terror group by the US and EU.
One of his friends, however, was clearly concerned that Wadee was the only militant showing his face, writing: ‘Cover your face, Abu Wadee, you are dangerous.’
In another post from 2021, Wadee commented on what appeared to be a picture of a rocket attack on Israel, saying: ‘Our occupied lands will become red with flames and wrath, God willing.’
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said last night: ‘We consider that this man poses a threat to public security and are asking the Home Office for urgent assurances that he is in secure custody pending further investigations.
‘[Someone] whose stated ambition is ‘to die for the sake of Allah’ and prayed for the slaughter of all Jews must not be permitted to be at large in this country.’
The campaign group claim they have also found photographs of Wadei allegedly taken at a conference addressed by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was widely credited as the architect of the October 7, 2023 terrorist atrocities.
Wadee has a huge following on social media, where his TikTok videos attract up to 2.5 million views.
He charted his journey from Gaza on the social media site channel, including posting footage of his dinghy being approached by the Border Force vessel.
It is believed he was one of the 235 migrants picked up on four small boats in the English Channel on Thursday morning.
As part of his journey across Europe, he posted a picture of himself in Brussels on Valentine’s Day, and then in central Paris earlier last week.
He also posted videos of him apparently sleeping rough in makeshift camps in France before uploading a new video on Friday, standing on a cramped dinghy, smiling as the Hurricane rescue boat comes into view.
He reposted another picture on Facebook yesterday which appeared to show him relaxing with a coffee and a cigarette in a busy town centre.
It was originally posted by a friend and carried the caption in Arabic which said: ‘A thousand “thank Gods” for Abu Wadee being safe. You have brightened up Britain.’
It is not known when or where the picture was taken.
The Home Office last night said: ‘We are committed to ending small boat crossings which undermine our border security, and restoring order to the asylum system to ensure that the rules are respected and enforced.
‘While it is a long-standing rule that we never comment on individual cases or operational matters, the British public can be reassured that we take all steps necessary at all times to protect the nation’s security.’
