The October 7 attacks that ignited the Gaza war had been meant as a limited operation by Hamas to capture "a number of soldiers" to swap for jailed Palestinians, Hayya was reportedly cited as saying.
London's Metropolitan Police force (Met) had warned people that it would not hesitate to arrest anyone who explicitly expressed support for the prohibited group.
The grandmother of three-year-old Ibrahim al-Mabhuh, who survived an Israeli air strike on a house that killed his parents and two sisters, according to medics, holds him in Gaza City, September 3, 2025.