Mosab Abdulkarim Al-Gassas, also known as Abu Wadee, cannot be deported back to Gaza despite entering Britain illegally and calling for the slaughter of Jewish people.

The 34-year-old TikTok influencer triggered a security alert after posting a video of himself at the forefront of migrants in a boat wearing orange life vests as he flashed a V for victory sign. He was arrested, pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally, and spent nine months in prison, after which he was allowed to stay and is now living in Corby in Northamptonshire.

Wadee has posted photos of himself with rifles and belonged to a Hamas unit called the Tire Burning Unit. In a video he posted before his arrival in Britain, he said, “Allah, deal with the Jews and those loyal to them. Allah, kill them one by one and leave none of them. Allah, destroy them completely, scatter them entirely and bring the ground down beneath their feet.”

The TikToker, who has a following of about 20,000 people, claimed that he no longer supports Hamas and now has Jewish friends.

“That was back when I lived in Gaza under Hamas rule. Everyone knows that Hamas is a terrorist organization that would kill us if we didn’t speak against the Jews while living there,” he told The Northamptonshire Telegraph. Nevertheless, he continues to post on TikTok and recruits young people to join his calls for a “free Palestine.”

The Home Office is seeking to deport him but cannot do so currently because of the dangers in Gaza, which include risks to life and lack of safe routes to Gaza.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, slammed the government’s policy on immigration, saying that Wadee should be sent back to Gaza, where “he’d fit right in.”

“This man – and all those entering illegally – should be deported,” he stated.

“The system is totally broken and is being exploited by dangerous thugs like this. That’s we need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and ban asylum claims by illegal immigrants,” he added.

“If the Government hadn’t cancelled the Rwanda scheme before it started, then they could have sent Wadee there. Given he supports Hamas and Hamas runs Gaza, I see no reason why he can’t go back there. He’d fit right in,” he concluded.

Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British Jewish advocacy group, also lashed out at the government.

“There is a wider question of what this man is still doing in the UK, having been convicted of immigration offences. What is the point of imprisoning someone for being in the country illegally, and then when he completed his sentence allowing him to roam free? Our laws have become a laughing stock,” the group wrote in a social media statement.

“This is all the more significant in a week when the Home Secretary has announced that she will make it easier for Gazans to settle in the UK with no assurances being provided as to whether they may hold antisemitic views or have a history of terrorism,” the group said.

“Our country desperately needs to get a grip,” it added.