Hamas to give response to Mabhouh assassination

Hamas has said it will give a response to the assassination of its senior official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh widely believed at the hands of an Israeli hit-squad.

Hamas has set up a committee in order to investigate the assassination of al-Mabhouh by Israel, according to the member of Hamas Political Bureau, Ezzat al-Rashq.

The Hamas member further expressed hope that the movement and the UAE would cooperate to bring the criminals to justice.

The European countries whose passports were used by the assassins should be held accountable, he also noted.

Mabhouh, a senior commander in the armed wing of the Islamic movement, was killed in his hotel room on January 19 in Dubai by a hit squad of at least 11 people carrying forged European passports, according to the Dubai police.

On Thursday, Interpol issued arrest warrants for the 11 suspects, 10 men and a woman, after Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim called on Interpol to issue “a red notice against the head of Mossad… as a killer in case Mossad is proved to be behind the crime, which is likely now.”

Tamim further said that investigations have revealed that the Israeli spy agency Mossad was behind the murder of Mabhouh.

“It is 99 percent, if not 100 percent certain that Mossad is behind the murder,” he told the UAE newspaper The National.

According to Dubai police, the 11 suspects had European passports: one French, three Irish, six British, and one German. A French national, identified as Peter Elvinger allegedly acted as the logistical mastermind in the Dubai hit.