Hamas military commander ‘assassinated in Dubai’
A senior Hamas military commander has been assassinated by Israel in Dubai, the Palestinian Islamist group claims.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 50, a founder of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, “died a martyr on 20 January in suspicious circumstances”, a statement said.
Hamas gave no further details, but vowed to “retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate moment”.
An Israeli government spokesman would not comment, in line with Israel’s usual policy on similar allegations.
The AFP news agency reports that the authorities in Dubai have identified several European passport holders as suspects.
Thousands of people attended Mr Mabhouh’s funeral at the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, on the outskirts of Damascus, on Friday.
His coffin was wrapped in a Hamas flag and a large portrait was placed at the entrance to the mosque with the words: “Your fingerprints are everywhere. We promise to continue in your path.”
A Hamas political bureau member in Damascus, Izzat al-Rishq, told the BBC that Mr Mabhouh, who had been living in Syria since 1989, had been very close to its exiled political leader, Khaled Meshaal.
“Mabhouh died a martyr in Dubai on 20 January 2010 in suspicious circumstances that require an inquiry in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates authorities,” Hamas said in a statement.
“We in Hamas hold the Zionist enemy responsible for the criminal assassination of our brother, and we pledge to God and to the blood of the martyrs and to our people to continue his path of jihad and martyrdom,” it added.
Hamas has not given details of how he was killed, but Mr Mabhouh’s family said medical teams that examined him determined that he had died in his hotel room after receiving a massive electric shock to the head. They also found evidence that he had been strangled.
Blood samples sent to a French laboratory confirmed he was killed by electric shock, after which the body was sent to Damascus, they added.
Hamas said Mahmoud al-Mabhouh had been responsible for the abduction in 1989 of two Israeli soldiers, who were both later killed.
Sgt Avi Sasportas and Sgt Ilan Sa’adon were seized a few months apart as they hitchhiked from military bases to their homes during the first Palestinian Intifada.
Sgt Sasportas’s body was discovered a year later, close to where he was picked up as he went home to Ashdod. Sgt Sa’adon’s body was not recovered for seven years.
Mr Mabhouh also masterminded a number of other attacks, for which the Israeli authorities demolished his home in Gaza, Hamas said.
He spent several periods in Israeli custody. After his last release, “he spent his life being hounded by the Zionist occupier until he succeeded in leaving the Gaza Strip,” it said.
“Our brother had been a target for the occupier ever since his participation in the kidnapping operation against the two Zionist soldiers, and for his role and support for the resistance.”
