Small boat migrant guilty of attempting knife attack on Israeli embassy

Counter Terrorism Policing

A man who tried to climb into the Israeli embassy in London carrying two knives has been found guilty of preparing a terror-related knife attack.

Abdullah Albadri, 34, had only arrived in the UK in a small boat from France 16 days before the attempted attack on 28 April 2025. It was the second time he had entered the UK illegally by small boat in four years.

He was arrested trying to scale the railings of the heavily-guarded embassy, and asked the armed diplomatic protection officers who detained him, "Why are you stopping me from making crimes?"

That morning he had messaged his mother: "I chose the path of martyrdom."

On Friday, a jury at the Old Bailey in London, which deliberated for nearly 14 hours, found him guilty by a majority verdict of preparation of terrorist acts and possession of two bladed articles.

Albadri's motivation seems to have been Israel's war in Gaza. After his arrest, he told officers, "I want to do something to stop the war", and also said he wanted to stop a war on children.

During his trial, Albadri said that he was from the stateless Bedoon tribe and had been born in Kuwait.

His police officer father had paid for his schooling but he could not access higher education because of his ethnicity, so he became an activist. He said he had spent five years in prison in Kuwait.

Metropolitan Police

In August 2021 he made his first small boat journey across the channel and claimed asylum. His story was that while awaiting his asylum decision he hitched a lift in a lorry that he thought was taking him to Manchester, but found himself back in France.

Last year he crossed the channel again, arriving on 12 April. He was taken to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Basingstoke the next day, but three days later he was told that because he had already applied for asylum his application was being treated as a "further submission" and he did not qualify for accommodation, so he was left homeless.

He spent the next few days sleeping rough, washing in mosques and sometimes borrowing accommodation from people in the Kuwaiti community in London.

But on 24 April, just 12 days after arriving in the country, he also started searching for the location of the Israeli embassy, and searched online for information about "suicide among enemies".

He copied out a verse titled "the benefit of martyrdom," that was found on him when he was arrested.

Counter Terrorism Policing

On the morning of 28 April he started the day in Kilburn in north-west London.

He took a picture of a handwritten note with a knife beside it and sent it to his mother in Kuwait.

In the note he wrote, "I will attack in the way of Allah and for the sake of being free from humiliation in this world."

After he had sent the picture of the note, Albadri messaged his mother, "I chose the path of martyrdom", and asked her to "be proud of me because I will conquer the enemies in their own homes."

Counter Terrorism Policing

He then set off to walk across London to the Israeli embassy in Kensington, telling the jury that he was praying throughout the hour-long journey.

He was wearing a red and white traditional Arabic scarf wrapped around his head, leaving only his eyes uncovered. He was also wearing sunglasses.

No-one seems to have reacted as he walked through the capital until he reached Kensington Palace Gardens.

The road contains the embassies of Russia and France, among others, and leads to the Israeli embassy, but Albadri was able to walk down it, with his head still wrapped in the red and white scarf.

As he approached the 8ft-high fence around his target he saluted two diplomatic protection officers and jumped onto the railings in an attempt to scale them.

PC Nicholas Cox and PC Libby Chessor reacted quickly, grabbing hold of Albadri, releasing his foot, which got stuck in the railings, and dragging him onto the ground.

Counter Terrorism Policing

There he was held down and handcuffed by five officers, one of them in plain clothes with a handgun on his belt.

"You remember me, I'm gonna come again," he told the officers.

When PC Cox asked him if he had anything that he could "stick" them with, Albadri said, "I got my weapons".

"I want to make a crime inside there. Why are you stopping me? Why are you stopping me from making crimes?", he asked the officers.

"Why didn't you let me in? And then do what you want to do?," he asked them.

Back at Hammersmith police station he said, "I want to do something to stop the war."

At the trial it was suggested that he might have hoped he was going to be shot by the officers in what is sometimes called "suicide by cop."

"I wish you'd use that on me man", Albadri said to PC Libby Chessor at one point.

In cross-examination prosecutor Catherine Pattison asked him whether he was referring to the rifle. "I might be yeah," he replied.

"You were wishing she would use the gun on you," Pattison asked.

"Yeah. Better than this," he said.

When he was searched, officers found the "martyrdom" note that he had sent to his mother, and two red and white-handled knives with 10cm (3.9in) blades.