Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
Encyclopedia
Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh (Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

: محمود عبد الرؤوف المبحوح; February 14, 1960January 19, 2010) was a senior Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

 military commander and one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist fundamentalist socio-political organisation Hamas. Created in 1992, under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, the primary objective of the group was to build a coherent military organisation to support the goals of...

, the military affiliate of Hamas. Police in the Emirate of Dubai, where al-Mabhouh was killed, allege that it was carried out by Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

, the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i intelligence agency.

As an al-Qassam Brigades operative, Al-Mabhouh was involved in several armed actions targeting Israel, including the abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989. In more recent years, al-Mabhouh had assumed an important role procuring weapons for the al-Qassam Brigades. In 2010, journalists Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv alleged that Mabhouh had played a key role in forging secret connections between the Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

 government in Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...

 and the Al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

.

Al-Mabhouh was killed in the five-star Al Bustan Rotana Hotel
Rotana Hotels
Rotana Hotel Management Corporation Ltd is a hotel management company in the Middle East and North Africa region and part of the Rotana Group of companies. It has a portfolio of 70 properties and operates four sub brands which include Rotana Hotels & Resorts, Centro Hotels by Rotana, Rayhaan...

 in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

 on January 19, 2010, having arrived in the country earlier that day from Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 under an alias and using one of several passports. The Dubai police
Dubai Police Force
The Dubai Police Force is the 15,000 strong police force for the city of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. They come under the jurisdiction of the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE , and they cover an area of 4,114 square kilometres and a population of 1,321,453 people.-History:The...

 state that al-Mabhou was drugged and then suffocated with a pillow. Widespread speculation, which Dubai police allegations support, is that he was killed by Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i Mossad assassins. Allegations that the assassins used fraudulently obtained passports from several countries led to the arrests and expulsions of Israeli officials in several European countries and Australia.

Biography

Al-Mabhouh was born in Jabalia Camp, Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...

, on February 14, 1960. As a young man, he pursued weightlifting. He quit secondary school, trained as a car mechanic and later became a garage owner. Al-Mabhouh had 13 siblings, and was a married father of four.

In the 1970s, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

, and in the 1980s, he was reported to have been involved in sabotaging coffee shops where gambling was taking place. In 1986, the Israeli security forces arrested him for possession of an assault rifle. It has been reported that after his release, he became involved with Hamas.

According to a Hamas statement, Al-Mabhouh was involved in the 1989 abduction and killing of the Israeli soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon
Murder of Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon
The murder of Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon occurred on February 16, 1989, when the two Israeli soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas militants....

, whose murders he celebrated by standing on one of the corpses. In a video taped two weeks before his death, and broadcast on Al-Jazeera in early February, 2010, Mabhouh admitted his involvement, saying he had disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew. In May 1989, a failed attempt was made to arrest him for his involvement in the murder of the two Israeli soldiers and he subsequently left the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

; his home in Gaza was demolished by Israel in 1989 as retribution for the attack.

According to a report in The Palestine Chronicle, al-Mabhouh had survived two assassination attempts; the first was a car bombing; the second took place in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 in 2009 and involved the use of poison which rendered him unconscious for 30 hours.

Al-Mabhouh was believed by Israel to have been involved in smuggling weapons and explosives into Gaza. He spent most of 2003 in an Egyptian jail. He had been arrested and released several times by Israel. At the time of his death, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was wanted by the Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian governments, and living in Syria.

In recent years, Mabhouh is alleged to have played a key role in forging secret connections between the Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

 government in Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...

 and the Al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

.

Death

On January 19, 2010, al-Mabhouh was killed in his room in a hotel in Dubai. He had been followed by at least 11 individuals suspected of being Mossad agents, who were carrying fake or fraudulently obtained passports from various Western nations, seven of which assumed the names of Israeli dual citizens. Reports indicate that al-Mabhouh was tracked by his killers from Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

. He was travelling without bodyguards, and was en route to Bangkok. Although it has been reported that he carried five passports under different names, Hamas officials in Syria reportedly stated that at this time he was using one issued in his own name.

He checked into the Al Bustan Rotana
Rotana Hotels
Rotana Hotel Management Corporation Ltd is a hotel management company in the Middle East and North Africa region and part of the Rotana Group of companies. It has a portfolio of 70 properties and operates four sub brands which include Rotana Hotels & Resorts, Centro Hotels by Rotana, Rayhaan...

 hotel on the afternoon of January 19. He left the hotel about an hour after check-in, and there are conflicting reports as to what he did during the few hours before he was killed. At approximately 8:25 p.m. Al-Mabhouh went back to his room. He failed to answer a call from his wife a half hour later.

According to Dubai Police Force
Dubai Police Force
The Dubai Police Force is the 15,000 strong police force for the city of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. They come under the jurisdiction of the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE , and they cover an area of 4,114 square kilometres and a population of 1,321,453 people.-History:The...

, he was dead by 9 p.m. that evening. On January 20, the following day, his body was found in his hotel room. Al-Mabhouh's remains were transported to Damascus for burial.

Hotel surveillance footage released to the public shows the suspects, who had arrived on separate flights, meeting in the hotel. While the suspects used personal communication devices among themselves to avoid surveillance, a number of telephone calls were made to a number in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. When al-Mabhouh arrived around 3pm, two of the suspects followed him to his room. They then checked into the room opposite al-Mabhouh's. At 8pm al-Mabhouh left the hotel and while several of the suspects kept watch, two tried to gain entry to his room, but were disturbed when a tourist exited the nearby elevator. While another suspect distracted the tourist, four suspects allegedly entered the victim’s hotel room using an electronic device, and waited for him to return. Hotel computer logs indicate that an attempt was made to reprogram al-Mabhouh’s electronic door lock at this time.

Cause of death

Initially, Dubai authorities believed al-Mabhouh had died of natural causes. Results from a preliminary forensic report by the Dubai police found that al-Mabhouh was first paralyzed by an injection of succinylcholine (suxamethonium), a fast-acting muscle relaxant. He was then suffocated with a pillow, though their investigation and final report on the matter would not be ready until the beginning of March. Signs indicated that al-Mabhouh attempted to resist as he was being suffocated. The hyper-relaxation mode induced by this drug applies only to muscles – the victim remains conscious. Dubai authorities stated they were ruling the death a homicide and were working with the International Criminal Police Organization
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

 to investigate the incident.

Suspects

Dhahi Khalfan Tamim
Dhahi Khalfan Tamim
Dahi Khalfan Tamim is a Lieutenant General and chief of the Dubai Police Force, for the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He came to international attention while overseeing the investigation of the group suspected of assassinating Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.- Biography :Tamim was born in...

, Lt. Gen. and Dubai's police chief, announced on February 18 that, "Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder of al-Mabhouh ... It is 99% if not 100% that Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

 is standing behind the murder." Dubai police said the killers spent little time in the emirate, arriving less than a day before the murder, killing al-Mabhouh between his arrival at 3:15 p.m. and 9 p.m. that night, and leaving the country before the discovery of the murder.

The Israeli government initially did not comment on claims that it was involved in Mabhouh's death. On February 17, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman refused to confirm or deny any Israeli involvement, citing Israel's "policy of ambiguity" on such matters, and claimed a lack of solid evidence for Israeli involvement. Lieberman even declared that the press "watch too many James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 movies". Later the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, said "there is nothing linking Israel to the assassination." However, Israeli media and public opinion have generally accepted Mossad's responsibility for the operation.

The identities used by eleven of the suspects have been publicly identified, based on passports that the Dubai police said were not forgeries, though both the British and Irish governments said the passports bearing their countries' names were "either fraudulently obtained or [are] outright fakes." The total number of suspects stands at eighteen, all of whom entered the country using fake or fraudulently obtained passports. Passports used by the assassins were from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 (6), Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 (5), Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 (3), France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 (1 – suspected of being the hit squad leader and logistical coordinator), and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (1).

The names used on the six UK passports and the German passport belong to individuals who live in Israel and hold dual citizenship
Multiple citizenship
Multiple citizenship is a status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a citizen under the laws of more than one state. Multiple citizenships exist because different countries use different, and not necessarily mutually exclusive, citizenship requirements...

s.

The photographs of 11 of the suspected assassins were added to Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

's most wanted list on February 18, with a note specifying that they had been published since the identities adopted by the suspects were faked. Dubai airport officials carried out routine retinal scans on 11 of the suspects sought in the assassination when they entered the country and Dubai police said they would publish the scans through INTERPOL.

Two Palestinians, Ahmad Hasnin, an intelligence operative of the Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...

-controlled Palestinian Authority
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...

 (PA), and Anwar Shekhaiber, an employee of the PA in Ramallah, were arrested in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

 and handed over to Dubai, suspected of giving logistical assistance. Hamas said the two were former Fatah security officials that both worked at a construction company in Dubai owned by Mohammed Dahlan
Mohammed Dahlan
Mohammed Dahlan born on September 29, 1961 in Khan Younis Refugee Camp, Khan Younis, Gaza Strip also known by the kunya or nom de guerre Abu Fadi is a Palestinian politician, the former leader of Fatah in Gaza...

, another senior Fatah security official, and that they rented cars and hotel rooms for members of the Mossad hit team alleged to have carried out the killing. Dahlan and Fatah denied the charges. Recruitment of Ahmad Hasnin by the Mossad may have occurred while he was imprisoned by Israel for a month in June 2007 for his involvement with Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's paramilitary wing. He came to the UAE in 2008, according to a family source.

On February 19 Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan called for Interpol to issue a "red notice" to approve the arrest of Israeli Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

 chief Meir Dagan
Meir Dagan
Meir Dagan is a former Israel Defense Forces officer and former Director of the Mossad .-Biography:...

, causing the Israeli government to deny he has enough proof.

Suspected Mossad Agent Arrested

In early June 2010 German prosecutors announced that at Germany's request Polish authorities had arrested a suspected Mossad agent thought to have played a role in the Dubai assassination of a Hamas commander.

"He was arrested in Warsaw and is suspected of being involved in illegally obtaining a [German] passport," a spokesman for German federal prosecution said, confirming a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Western government reactions

In the wake of the revelation that passports of British citizens had figured prominently in the operation, the United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency
Serious Organised Crime Agency
The Serious Organised Crime Agency is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom under Home Office sponsorship...

 launched its own investigation into the matter. The British Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

 also summoned the Israeli ambassador on February 18 to share information on the matter. The Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

cited a previously reliable "British security source" as stating that Mossad had tipped off the UK that their passports would be used for an operation, but this was denied by the UK government.

Britain's Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

 believes that the passports used were fraudulent; one report indicated that they had issued the passports in January, the only difference between the actual identities being the photographs.

Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs (Ireland)
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a department of the Government of Ireland that is responsible for promoting the interests of Ireland in the European Union and the wider world...

 declared that eight supposedly Irish passports used by the suspects were forged. On 15 June, following an extensive investigation, the Department of Foreign Affairs came to "the inescapable conclusion that an Israeli government agency was responsible for the misuse and, most likely, the manufacture of the forged Irish passports associated with the murder of Mr. Mabhouh." The government's immediate diplomatic reaction was that "Israel be requested to withdraw a designated member of staff of its Embassy in Dublin."

According to a spokesman of the French Foreign Affairs ministry, the French passport was counterfeit. The Israeli chargé d'affaires in Paris was summoned on February 18 and the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing, "deep concern about the malicious and fraudulent use of these French administrative documents."

German officials said that the passport number which they received from the authorities in Dubai is either incomplete or does not exist. In June 2010 Polish authorities arrested a suspect in connection with the case. Germany has sought his extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...

 over the alleged misuse of its passports.

After learning of the alleged use of Australian passports by Mossad, the Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith
Stephen Smith (Australian politician)
Stephen Francis Smith , is the Australian Minister for Defence. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since March 1993, representing the Division of Perth, Western Australia....

, publicly summoned the Israeli ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem
Yuval Rotem
Yuval Rotem is currently the ambassador of the State of Israel to the Commonwealth of Australia.-Biography:Yuval Rotem was born on March 21, 1959 in Tel Aviv to Rachel and Israel Frenkel. They lived in a suburb called Giv'atayim. Rotem attended his first years of school in a local school. He moved...

. Mr. Smith told the ambassador that if Israel was responsible for the passport forgeries that "Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend". Soon after this occurred, Australia, who is usually a strong supporter of Israel at the United Nations, abstained on a UN motion to investigate Israeli war crimes committed during the Gaza War, a motion that Australia had previously opposed. In the Australian press there was widespread speculation that the move was retaliation for the passport affair.

Australian and British investigators came to Israel to investigate the case. In May 2010, after receiving the final results of the investigation, Australia expelled an Israeli diplomat over the fake passport affair.

The U.S. refused to cooperate with investigation

After al-Mabhouh's death the United Arab Emirates requested that the U.S. assist it in tracking down "cardholder details and related information for credit cards reportedly issued by a U.S. bank to several suspects." The U.S. has denied receiving the request. A cable sent from the U.S. consulate in Dubai, released by Wikileaks, however, shows that the U.S. declined the UAE request.

External links


  • Biography of Mahmoud al-Mahbouh from the Information Office of the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades
    Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
    The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist fundamentalist socio-political organisation Hamas. Created in 1992, under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, the primary objective of the group was to build a coherent military organisation to support the goals of...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK