Dubai Police: New Evidence Implicates Mossad in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh Hamas Hit

By Robert Berger

February 22, 2010

There is more evidence pointing to Mossad involvement in the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai.

Dubai police say credit card payments and phone calls provide further proof that Israel's Mossad spy agency was behind the assassination of a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas last month. Police say the calls and purchases were made by members of an 11-person hit squad who entered Dubai on false European passports.

Using closed-circuit video, police were able to piece together the assassination plot, in which Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed by secret agents in his hotel room.

Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim says he is 99 percent sure that the Mossad carried out the assassination. He said if the head of the Mossad was indeed involved, Dubai will demand his arrest along with the rest of the hit squad.

Israel, which does not comment on alleged Mossad operations, has remained silent. While some Israeli commentators have criticized the Mossad for leaving behind a trail of evidence, Ra'anan Gissin, a former government spokesman, sees things differently.

"Whoever did the job, you know, did not do a perfect job because it's not a perfect world. You have speculations, you have pictures. But there's no real evidence that Israel conducted this event," he said.

Gissin says the world may never know for sure that it was the Mossad. "The name of the game in this cloak-and-dagger job is ambiguity," said the former spokesman.

He says the operation in Dubai was a success because it achieved its goals: a wanted arch-terrorist was killed and the hit squad escaped.