Palestine, February 18: At least three Palestinians are suspected in the murder of a top Hamas official in Dubai last month in a hit allegedly carried out by Israel’s notorious Mossad, a Palestinian official said Thursday.
The alleged involvement of the three men — one Hamas infiltrator and the other two former members of security forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority — adds to the intrigue of the spy thriller-style murder.
A Palestinian Authority security official in the occupied West Bank said Nehru Massoud, a commander in the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s resistance armed wing, had recently been detained by Syrian police in Damascus.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Massoud was based in the Gaza Strip prior to the June 2007 Hamas takeover of the territory but later made his way to Syria, where he was close to exiled leader Khaled Meshaal.
“Massoud was in Dubai the day of the assassination and he left for Syria the following day,” the official said. Mabhuh’s body was found in a Dubai hotel room on January 20 but his murder was not immediately made public.
He added that the two men had been together in Sudan prior to the killing.
The same official also identified two Palestinians who had earlier been arrested in Jordan and extradited to Dubai as Anwar Shaheiber and Ahmed Hassanein, members of Palestinian Authority security forces.
He said the two men had fled the territory when Hamas seized power but later were allowed to return.
Hamas denied anyone had been arrested in Syria but confirmed the two Palestinians detained in Jordan were members of Gaza security forces who had fled in June 2007.
“According to our information, the two people detained in Dubai are from Gaza and worked in the former security services, one of them in preventive security and the other in intelligence,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
“They were recruited by the Mossad and we know their names, but we are refraining from mentioning them because of the investigation under way in Dubai,” Abu Zuhri said.
Hamas has blamed the masterminding of the assassination entirely on Israel, and at a Wednesday night rally in Gaza senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya called on the Palestinian Authority to investigate the murder.
The Authority should “assume its responsibility concerning what has emerged regarding the participation of elements of the security forces in the criminal assassination,” he said.
“Revenge for the blood of Mabhuh is coming. It is inevitable,” he added.
—Agencies