ബൂലോകത്തെ ഏക ആല്‍ത്തറ

The British Foreign Office denied a news report Friday that the British intelligence service was told in advance that Israeli agents planned to assassinate a senior Hamas militant.Israel has brushed aside suggestions that it was involved in the January 20 death in a Dubai hotel of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founding member of Hamas’ military wing. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said there is “no reason to think” that Israeli agents were involved in the killing.

Nearly everyone believes that the 11 alleged members of the hit squad that killed Hamas leader Muhammad al-Mabhouh last week in Dubai are Mossad agents. Seven of the 11 identities used were stolen from other Israelis with dual European citizenship.

In the first days after news of the murder emerged, reaction tended towards the smug. Asked about Israeli involvement in the hit, the interior minister, Eli Yishai, smiled and said: “All the security services make, thank God, great efforts to safeguard the security of the state.” Excited journalists, in Israel and abroad, hailed a further effortless triumph for brutal Mossad efficiency. When the Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer won her match in a Dubai championship, the Tel Aviv website Ynet piped: “Another flawless operation in Dubai.”

Investigators first announced they had identified several “European passport holders” as suspects on Jan 29 – nine days after Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room.