Hamas accuses Israel of killing its military chief

HAMAS HAS blamed Israeli agents for last week’s assassination in Dubai of a founder of its military wing, and vowed to retaliate.

Mahmoud Mabhouh (50), held responsible by Israel for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, died in mysterious circumstances on January 20th, a day after arriving in the emirate.

In a declaration yesterday on its website, Hamas asserted: “We hold [Israel] responsible for the assassination of our brother, and we pledge to retaliate for this crime at the appropriate time and place.”

Fayeq al-Mabhouh, the victim’s brother, stated: “Preliminary results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the [United Arab] Emirates show that he was killed by an electrical appliance which was held to his head.”

Blood and tissue samples sent to a Paris laboratory confirmed that he died from “electric shock and suffocation”.

The victim, who was in charge of weapons procurement for Hamas, was on a mission in Dubai, his brother observed. This was not the first time an attempt had been made on his life.

Six months ago, he was rushed to hospital in Damascus in a coma and treated for poisoning.

Dubai chief of police Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan observed that the late Mr Mabhouh had travelled to the emirate on a “passport under another name. If we had been told of his presence, we would have provided him with the necessary protection.”

Izzat al-Rishq, an exiled member of the Hamas leadership, said Mr Mabhouh had organised the roadside seizures of Israeli soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon on the orders of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the Hamas founder and spiritual mentor who was slain by an Israeli helicopter gunship in 2004.

A second senior Hamas figure, Dr Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, was killed by a missile fired into his car a month later.

In 1997, Israeli agents operating in Jordan injected poison into the Hamas politburo chief, Khaled Mishaal, who survived thanks to the intervention of King Hussein.

Mr Mabhouh’s funeral was held in Damascus, where he had lived for 20 years with his wife and four children.

Family members received condolences in his home town of Jabaliya in central Gaza.

Meanwhile, Gerhard Conrad, the German intelligence official who was trying to mediate a prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel, has reportedly resigned.

Mr Rishq declared that Israel had “put him in a critical situation” because of its refusal to release Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, Popular Front chief Ahmad Sadat and Hamas figures involved in bombings in Israel.

In exchange for the release of its soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas affiliates in 2006, Israel was set to free nearly 1,000 Palestinians.

However, of the 450 selected by Hamas, Mr Rishq said that most of the “West Bankers on the list were set for deportation to Gaza or abroad . . . this made it a deportation agreement and not a swap deal, which Palestinians reject.”

France may take over the role of intermediary in the effort to secure a prisoner swap.