29/01/2010 | Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Palestinian Islamic resistance group said on Friday.Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated on January 20 by Israel in Dubai, was killed by electric shock after an electrical appliance was held to his head and had already escaped several past attempts to kill him, according to his brother.
"The first results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the (United Arab) Emirates show he was killed by an electrical appliance that was held to his head," Faiq al-Mabhouh told AFP by telephone.
Speaking to Ynet from Gaza, he further noted, "The assassination attempt was one of many. My brother escaped an attempted hit in Gaza, and six months ago he was poisoned and was unconscious for 36 hours, but he didn't like the media and no one in the organization spoke of it.
"He also survived when Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil was assassinated in Damascus in 2004 after security cameras located a device attached to his car."
Al-Mabhouh's family has no details on the circumstances of Mahmoud's death. Meanwhile, Hamas are blaming the Mossad. "Hamas' overseas branch officially informed the family 10 days ago that he was dead, but only tonight after all of the forensic examinations, his body was turned over to Hamas and we were notified at two in the morning," Faiq said.
The family set up a mourners' tent and Faiq said that all of Hamas' leadership arrived. "The family has no doubt it was a hit," he said.
It appears the assassination has not changed the family's outlook. "This doesn’t end the resistance and damages nothing. At most it's a closure with my brother, since they assassinated Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and Rantissi and the resistance kept on going."
Hamas' deputy politburo Chief Moussa Abu Marzouk said Friday, "Mossad agents are those who assassinated al-Mabhouh in Dubai."
The Islamic resistance organization's military wing stated that al-Mabhouh was one of its founders.
Al-Mabhouh was suspected of having participated in the capture and subsequent killing of two Israeli occupation soldiers in 1989.
Rishq said Mabhouh was an "important" member of Izz el-Din al-Qassam brigades, Hamas's military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s.
He said Mabhouh, who had been living in Syria since 1989, was assassinated a day after he arrived in Dubai but that Hamas could not say more at present about how he was killed.
The report comes at a time when Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a crisis in negotiations over a prisoner swap deal that would secure the release of captive occupation soldier Gilad Shalit.
German newspaper Der Spiegel reported earlier this week that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retracted his last offer to Hamas for a prisoner exchange deal.
According to the newspaper's sources, the current state of affairs puts negotiations at risk of failure.
DUBAI HAS SUSPECTS BEHIND HAMAS KILLING, MOSTLY EUROPEANS
Dubai police have identified several European passport holders among a gang of suspects in the killing of the top Hamas resistance fighter in the emirate, the government said in a statement on Friday. "Preliminary investigations indicate that the crime was committed by a professional criminal gang that was following the victim before he came to the United Arab Emirates" on January 19, the statement said, quoting Dubai police.
It said that the members of the gang, "mostly holders of European passports," managed to flee the country before the death of Mahmud al-Mabhuh.
Dubai police will work with the Interpol to capture the suspects, it said, adding that "the culprits left a trace behind which points to them and will help in chasing and arresting them." "The trace that was found by investigators will help immensely in tracking the culprits," it added.
