Former senior Mossad man tells ‘Post’: Hit serves those who want to accuse Israel of being aggressive.
By YAAKOV LAPPINmabhouh assassins 311(photo credit: AP)
Dubai police broadened an international hunt on Wednesday for the hit squad that killed senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to 17 individuals, adding six more suspects to the original wanted list.Authorities in the Gulf state said the new suspects included a woman believed to have been part of a surveillance team that tracked Mabhouh’s movements at Al-Bustan Rotana hotel, where he was killed last month.According to reports, the woman arrived at the hotel on the evening of Mabhouh’s death disguised as a tourist, sporting a large summer hat. Police in Dubai said she had been with a second, bearded man, who had a large frame and was wearing a Panama hat.A third new suspect is believed to have been a member of the team that killed Mabhouh. He was spotted by hotel cameras leaving Mabhouh’s hotel room, along with a woman who entered Dubai with a forged Irish passport under the alias of Gail Folliard.Dubai was unable to name the additional suspects.Two Palestinians suspected of tipping off the assassins were arrested in Jordan in recent days, according to reports. The suspects have been deported to Dubai for questioning by police.Some observers have alleged that the Palestinian suspects were close to Mabhouh. A Hamas spokesman denied that allegation on Wednesday. The identities of the two Palestinian suspects remains unknown. According to unconfirmed reports, the Palestinians were in contact with the assassins on the day of the killing.Hamas and Fatah have traded accusations of complicity in the killing in recent days.In a further development, law enforcement officials in Dubai said the forged passports held by the suspected assassins had been used to travel around Asian and European countries a number of months before the assassination.Earlier Wednesday, former senior Mossad official Rami Igra told The Jerusalem Post that the assassination would further the aims of Israel’s detractors.
Igra said several intelligence agencies could “obtain the identification and names of citizens in Israel,” adding that the fact that the aliases had been traced to Israelis “indicates that this serves those who would accuse Israel of being an aggressive state which acts without restraint.”He added that he was concerned by the potential aftermath of the assassination, saying that it would contribute to an atmosphere of delegitimization currently prevalent abroad.“I believe this is an attempt to make us look bad,” Igra said.“In this age, anyone can obtain the names and identification of Israeli residents,” he added. “It’s fair to assume that every [government] in the world would warn its citizens in advance [if it planned to use their identities].”
