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Anne Barker reported this story on Saturday, January 30, 2010 08:12:00
ELIZABETH JACKSON: The militant Palestinian group Hamas has accused Israel of assassinating one of its most senior operatives. Mahmoud al Mabhouh was apparently electrocuted on a visit to Dubai.
His family and Hamas officials believe his death bears all the signs of an attack by Mossad - Israel's intelligence agency - although neither Mossad nor Israel ever comments on such operations.
Authorities in Dubai say they've identified several European passport holders as suspects, as our Middle East Correspondent Anne Barker reports.
ANNE BARKER: Mahmoud al Mabhouh was a prime candidate for assassination.
The 50 year old Gazan militant was a founding member of Hamas' armed wing the Qassam Brigades, which over three decades has waged suicide bombings and thousands of rocket attacks on Israel.
A pro Hamas website even boasts of his role in kidnapping and killing two Israeli soldiers in the late 1980s. He was jailed many times, and in retaliation Israeli forces demolished his home.
FAYEQ AL MABHOUH (TRANSLATED): From the very first moments we had no doubt that Mossad's hands were behind the assassination.
In fact we accuse Israel and Mossad in particular. We leave it to the investigations to be carried out within the movement or the military apparatus of the Qassam brigades.
ANNE BARKER: Al Mabhouh lived in Syria, along with other Hamas leaders exiled from Gaza.
He was in Dubai apparently on a Hamas mission, but died within hours of arriving from electrocution. His brother says an electrical appliance had been held to his head.
Israel has made no comment in keeping with standard practice. But Hamas's top political leader Khaled Meshal has vowed revenge.
"You may kill us, you may hurt us" he said, "but we're going to kill your claimed legitimacy and we will tear the false image you've painted in recent decades".
Israel has a long history of targeting Islamist militants for assassination. Just recently two Hamas men were killed in a mysterious late night bombing in Beirut. Again Hamas suspected Israeli agents.
And most famously, Israeli forces botched an attempt to assassinate Khaled Mishal in Jordan three years ago.
The threat of assassination though hasn't convinced Hamas to renounce its fight against Israel. Its official charter still calls for the Jewish state's obliteration and replacement by an Islamic caliphate.
Late yesterday thousands attended Al Mabhouh's funeral at a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. In Gaza, posters of him are already on the streets portraying him as a martyr.
This is Anne Barker in Jerusalem for AM.
Note: Has anyone read Eli Cohen's biography? Great read! BeeSting
