Hamas: Press report aims at smearing

Hamas categorically denied a press report published by a Saudi-financed paper on the alleged involvement of a senior Hamas official and his office director in offering information that led to the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai earlier this year.

The movement in a statement on Monday said that what Al-Shark Al-Awsat had published was mere fabrication and sheer lies that aim at smearing Hamas.

It noted that the Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan refuted the report, adding that the London-based newspaper did not abide by professionalism in its reporting but depended on well-known political parties that are interested in deviating the investigation into Mabhouh’s assassination.

Khalfan told Quds Press on Monday that he only heard of the news through an SMS on his mobile phone, and that the report was not true.

The paper, and websites known for affiliation with the notorious Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan, had claimed on Monday that Khalfan was considering summoning the Hamas official and his office director to question them on the suspicion of providing information leading to the assassination of Mabhouh.

Politburo member of the PFLP-GC Anwar Raja accused, in a similar statement to Quds Press on Monday, the Israeli foreign intelligence of circulating the news in cooperation with Dahlan, who is charged with maintaining strong relations with Israeli security apparatuses.