ACCUSATION:SHARP DIFFERENCES over the murder of a leading Hamas figure have emerged between the Dubai police and the Palestinian movement.
Having stated last week that he was 99 per cent certain Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency was responsible, Dubai police chief Lieut Gen Dhahi Khalfan Tamim has accused a Hamas collaborator of providing the hit squad with information on the travel plans of the victim, Mahmoud Mabhouh.
Hamas promptly denied this allegation, which is based on a report by its rival Fatah that Nahro Massoud, a senior officer in the movement’s military wing, had been arrested in Syria on suspi- cion of aiding Mossad. Hamas retorted that Fatah is trying to dis- tract attention from the jailing in Dubai of two former security men employed by the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, Ahmad Hassanein and Anwar Shukhaiber, who fled Gaza after its takeover by Hamas in 2007. Hamas has demanded their extradition to Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil claimed that Mr Mabhouh had, inadvertently, aided his killers by booking his flights online and speaking on the phone from Damascus to members of his family in Gaza about his visit to Dubai. It is unlikely, however, that Mr Mabhouh, who had survived earlier attempts on his life, would take such risks.
His Gaza-based brother, Faik Mabhouh, stated that nothing had been said to the family about the fatal Dubai trip.
Mr Mabhouh, accused by Israel of killing two of its soldiers and smuggling weapons into Gaza, was murdered in his room in a luxury Dubai hotel on January 19th by a team of at least 18 agents using five passports from Ireland, six from Britain, and one each from Germany and France. Gen Tamim revealed that members of the assassination team had visited the emirate before the murder and some had travelled on diplomatic passports, presumably the three not yet identified.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign ministry called in ambassadors of the involved European countries and asked them to ensure their passports were not misused.
UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed stated, “The abuse of passports poses a global threat, affecting both countries’ national security and the personal security of travellers.”
