Mossad accused of killing Gazan prof in Malaysia
GAZA CITY: The family of a Palestinian professor and Hamas member accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency yesterday of killing him on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian police said Fadi Mohammad Al-Batsh, 35, was killed in a drive-by motorcycle shooting as he headed on foot to take part in dawn Muslim prayers yesterday. In a statement from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, his family said: “We accuse the Mossad of being behind the assassination.”
The Islamist Palestinian movement said Batsh, a research scientist specializing in energy issues, was one of its members. Hamas did not accuse Israel of killing him but called Batsh a “martyr” - a word it usually uses for people killed by Israeli forces. Contacted by AFP, an Israeli official refused to comment. Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim said one of two suspects on a highpowered motorcycle “fired 10 shots, four of which hit the lecturer in the head and body. He died on the spot”. “The police also found two empty bullet shells there,” the police chief said, according to Malaysia’s state-run Bernama news agency.
When contacted later by Reuters, Mazlan declined to comment on reports that the victim was a member of Hamas or had been targeted by hitmen. “It’s too early to say, we are still investigating all aspects.” A Palestinian in Malaysia who knew Batsh told Reuters on
condition of anonymity that the victim was also an imam at a mosque close to his residence.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the suspects were believed to be Europeans with links to a foreign intelligence agency, state news agency Bernama reported. He added the victim had links with foreign intelligence and was active in pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations, describing him as an expert in electrical engineering and rocket-building. The victim could have been seen as “a liability for a country that is an enemy of Palestine”, Zahid was quoted as saying by Bernama.
The police chief said that footage from closed-circuit television cameras near the scene of the shooting showed that two assailants waited for around 20 minutes in the area before attacking. “We believe the lecturer was their target because two other individuals walked by the place earlier unharmed. We will view the recordings of all the CCTV in the area to identify the suspects and get the registration number of the motorcycle,” he said.
The Palestinian representative in Malaysia, Anwar Al-Agha, told AFP that Batsh, who was married and a father of three, was a lecturer in electrical engineering who had lived in Malaysia for the past 10 years. “I visited the site of the attack. Fadi is a member of Hamas,” he said, Asked if Mossad could be responsible for his killing, he said: “I cannot comment on this. We have to wait for the official investigation.”
The Batsh family urged Malaysian authorities to investigate his murder and “arrest those responsible for killing him before they flee”. They also asked for the return of his body to his hometown of Jabalya in the Gaza Strip. The Mossad is believed to have assassinated Palestinian militants and scientists in the past, but has never confirmed such operations. Hamas has accused Mossad of assassinating one of its drone experts - Mohamed Zouari - in Tunisia in 2016, and the spy agency is also believed to have been behind the 2010 murder of top Hamas militant Mahmoud AlMabhouh in a Dubai hotel.