Hamas warns Israel of 'resistance' after official killed in Dubai
Dubai government: Police have identified suspects in the killing as members of a criminal gang.
By Avi Issacharoff Tags: Hamas Israel newsHamas leader Khaled Meshal made an impassionate speech on Friday to thousands of Palestinians who mourned a senior Hamas military commander believed to have been assassinated by Israel.
Meshal described the slain official, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, as a "great man" who fought the Israelis for 30 years.
"I say to you Zionists, do not rejoice. You killed him but his sons will fight you," he said. "God already took our leaders and loved ones, but resistance goes on. Palestine is a blessed land. It will not remain patient."
Meanwhile on Friday the Dubai government media office said Dubai police have identified the suspects in the killing.
A Dubai security source said that the suspects were members of a "criminal gang" that tracked Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he entered the country.
The source added that most of the suspects have European passports.
Al-Mabhouh was killed in Dubai on Jan. 20, Izzat al-Rishq told Reuters in the Syrian capital Damascus, but did not specify how the assassination was carried out.
"I cannot reveal the circumstances. We are working with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates," said Rishq, who is a member of Hamas' politburo.
Rishq, a top member of Hamas' exiled leadership in Damascus, told The Associated Press that details have not been released to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation, and that Hamas' delayed announcement was linked to an attempt to reach the Israeli agents who implemented this operation.
Rishq said al-Mabhouh engineered the capture and subsequent murder of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon, during a Palestinian uprising in the 1980s, and was imprisoned several times by Israeli forces. Israel razed his home in Gaza.
Various sources reported Friday that Al-Mabhouh was also a central figure in the smuggling of weapons from Iran into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Sasportas and Saadon were abducted in two separate incidents in 1989, on the orders of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who headed Hamas in the years following its establishment. Sasport was an infantry soldier who was abducted from an intersection near Ashkelon on February 16, 1989. His body was recovered later that year. Several days prior to the discovery of Sasport's body, Saadon went missing. His body was only found in 1996, as a result of intelligence received from Palestinian sources.
Rishq said al-Mabhouh was an "important" member of Izz el-Deen al- Qassam brigades, Hamas' military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s.
He said al-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.
"We in Hamas hold the Zionist enemy responsible for the criminal assassination of our brother, and we pledge to God and to the blood of the martyrs and to our people to continue his path of jihad and martyrdom," read the statement on Hamas' Palestinian Information Center Web site. The group pledged to "retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate time and place."
Al-Mabhouh will be buried Friday at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, near Damascus, the statement said.
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IDF soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon, whose abductions and murders were engineered by Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. |
| Photo by: (Golani website / Limor Edery) |
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Here in Canada, we have had issues of people sending parts for nuclear fuel processing from Canada to Dubai which is then sent from there to Iran. The Sad Part is for a while Dubai was a shining light of the Arab nations. An incredibly prosporous and flourishing state that was moderate and leading technology further. It still is taking technology, architechture, engineering etc... into the 21st and 22nd centuries, but the Moderation is waning. As such the CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) has started being very strict on shipping to Dubai and its unfortunate as it threatens to take away a lot of the shining light that Dubai was. Hopefully they can revert back to being Moderates, pro-capitalism and anti-Iranian nuclear weapons capability. See National Post they had an exclusive CBSA interview on the topic of shipments from canada to Dubai furthered thru to Iran.
The big Hamas drug dealer was assassinated because he played with fire. Whoever did it should be rewarded well.
So,what is new? Hamas threats never stopped even for a moment so why is this threat is different from the others? These clowns(hamas)making money on a misery of every day palestinians so keep going..keep threatening. By the way congratualtion Israel for joining NASA. NASA is very happy as Israel has much to offer for advancement of Space Technology. Hmmm, and what palestinians have got to offer? Oh yeah, new threats...I almost forgot... Ha...ha...ha
however it is assumed alwazys to be the hand of Zionists (another name for Jews)
let the jihadists see, there is no safe place for them
unfortunately the Israeli government hasn't learnt from its past history of revenge and counter revenge (Golda list)
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=255640 It was probably a Zionist Cancer.
Is the assassination of M al M a message to the captors of Shalit that if they kill him, they will be hunted until they are killed, even if it is 20 years later? And is this a message to Dubai about its relationship with Iran?
Unless Israel claims responsibility we may never really know. Since the only source of info at this point is Hamas and they simply can't be trusted to tell the truth. As has been pointed out it could have been the Pals themselves. After all Hamas conducted summary executions during the last war with Israel killing there own people. Fatah and Hamas kill each other all the time.
The Reuters report in the NYT said he abducted two Israeli soldiers, without mentioning that they were later killed. Typical.
Drug dealers have no remorse or conscience. They will always point the finger.
Maybe because Hamas had something to do with it and are trying to pin it on Israel as the 'bad guys'. Maybe there is a new element having a play ehre but if Hamas kept quiet then Israel may have piped up to take credit if only to rub it in the face of Hamas. WRT 20+years passing, NO country forgets its enemies.
If Hamas is to survive any type of peace arrangement,maybe they have to clean their own "dirty laundry"first?
The events that he is accussed of happened in the 1980s, over 25 years ago. Do you really think if Israel wanted him dead that it would take that long?? This is just PR for Hamas. nothing more. A way to blame Israel yet again He probably got on someone's nerve (fellow muslim) or did something to offend someone closer to him. What actually did he do for a living anyway?
may they rest in peace !
The Government of Yemen is fighting Al Qaeda. The US Government is targeting terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, both Hamas and Hezbollah are at odds with these assassinations in Beirut,Damascus and now in the Gulf. One can be sure that the leadership of both groups are subject to certain disputes. Somehow, one must assume that these disputes mostly end up in car bombings or contract killings. No wonder some of these leaders are living in bunkers or caves. Good day.
the methods of Hamas and those of the Israeli State. We Germans did learn from the Shoah and are disgusted about any kind of violence. We don't want murderers in our country: Stay at home next time, Mr. Peres. 6 Million dead Jews who suffered from nazi crime would be ashamed if they could see your country act criminal itself in the name of the Israeli people. What Israel does can truely not be compared to the Nazi crimes, but it started the same way. Stop any violence if you want peace. Revenge is the only known perpetuum mobile. And you turn it on and on...
maybe I am strange, but if my enemy was able to silently kill a senior member of my organization in a distant country I would find that embarrassing and not want to advertise that. I would say he died in an accident... but then again if he was killed by my own group I might want to blame it on them instead... It's something to think about.
It's hard to object to Israel killing this guy in principle -- but the timing makes one question the motives. The crimes in question occurred twenty years ago. One suspects that Israel needs some violence from Hamas -- and some intransigence from the other Arab states. It's possible, of course, that its all entirely coincidental. Maybe this just happened to be the first good shot they had at dude, and it just happened that the place was Dubai. Then again, Israel badly needs someone else to point the finger at right now. So it needs to get them off the stick and get them to do something bad.
of killing each other. Could easily be a Fatah brother in revenge for murder torture of Fatah men or just a (drug) deal gone wrong