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Vows of vengeance as Israel kills top Hamas commander in Gulf state of Dubai
Israeli and Dubai officials had no immediate comment. Mabhouh’s death lengthens Hamas’s list of what it describes as “martyrs,” and constitutes another setback for the group in its fight against the Jewish state.
Israel has killed dozens of leaders and military figures in Hamas, which was founded two decades ago as a religious resistance movement against Israeli occupation. “I cannot reveal the circumstances (of the killing). We are working with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates,” said Rishq, who is a member of Hamas’s politburo.
Rishq said Mabhouh, 50, was an “important” member of Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, Hamas’s military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s and was excecuted.
He said the brigades “will respond [against Israel] in the appropriate time and place”, but Hamas will not let the killing derail efforts to arrange for a prisoners’ exchange deal between Hamas and Israel that have run into difficulties. Mabhouh, who was born in the Gaza Strip but had been living in Syria since 1989, was assassinated a day after he arrived in Dubai, Rishq added. He was buried on Friday at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on the edge of Damascus. Hamas’s green flag covered the body as it was lowered into the grave.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal made an impassionate speech to the thousands of mourners and described Mabhouh as a “great man” who fought the Israelis for 30 years. “I say to you Zionists, do not rejoice. You killed him but his sons will fight you,” he said. “God already took our leaders and loved ones, but resistance goes on. Palestine is a blessed land. It will not remain patient.”
Poison
Another Palestinian source said Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai.
He had barricaded the door of his room with chairs, a standard precaution by a man who felt that Israeli intelligence has been after him for 20 years.
”It seems that an autopsy was ordered and found traces of poison in his body. Mabhouh was also ill. Hamas controls the information on this,” the source said. ”He was one of their main military guys, although not a crucial figure,” the source added.
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas official in Gaza, said Mabhouh was killed by “advanced technical means”. He did not elaborate. Mabhouh’s brother, Fayek, told Reuters in Gaza that his brother was killed “by strangulation after receiving an electric shock” and that two people were involved in the killing.
Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Rishq, who lives in exile in Damascus, along with several of Hamas’s main figures, said Mabhouh engineered the capture of two Israeli soldiers during the Palestinian uprising in the 1980s. The soldiers were later killed. Mabhouh was imprisoned several times by Israeli forces. Israel razed his home in Gaza, Rishq added.
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