[Ma'an] Israel killed a top Hamas official in Dubai last week, an official told Reuters on Friday. The official, identified as Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, was thought to be behind the assassinations of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon, in the 1980s. He was a member of Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. Thought he died of cancer?
"I cannot reveal the circumstances. We are working with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates," said Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' politburo, speaking in Damascus.
The teevee said Hamas was claiming the corpse showed signs of electrical shocks to the head, which'd be a fairly unique method of assassination. Of couse faking cancer symptoms and treatment would be, too.
Al-Rishq said he was killed on 20 January in Dubai, the day after he arrived from Syria, where he lived.
"Hi! I'm here in Dubai! [Gasp!] Rosebud!"
Al-Mabhouh had served as a liaison between Iran and Hamas, according to various reports, helping to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. He had been jailed several times by Israel, whose forces reportedly destroyed his Gaza home at some point. "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 a statement on a Hamas' news site.