Hamas accuses Mossad of assassinating Palestinian engineer in Malaysia

Militants in the Gaza Strip have accused Israel of assassinating a Palestinian engineer based in Malaysia, who was shot dead on Saturday by unknown assailants riding motorcycles. The victim has been identified as Dr. Fadi M. al-Batsh, 35, from the town of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave controlled by the militant group Hamas. Al-Batsh is believed to have completed undergraduate and Master’s degrees in electrical engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza. In 2011 he enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, from where he subsequently received his doctorate in electrical engineering. He was then employed as a lecturer by the University of Kuala Lumpur’s British Malaysian Institute. The Institute is located in the Jalan Gombak neighborhood of the Malaysian capital, where al-Batsh lived with his wife and three children. Some reports from Israel said that al-Batsh worked on drone technology and that he had authored scientific articles on the development of drone technology, as well as on the technical specifications of transmitters used to remotely control drones.

Local reports said al-Batsh was gunned down at around 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning as he was walking from his home to a nearby mosque for early-morning prayers. Footage taken from nearby security cameras shows that al-Batsh was shot by two men riding on a large BMW 1100cc motorcycle, who waited for him to arrive at the scene for at least 20 minutes before opening fire. Malaysian police said the Palestinian man was pronounced dead at the scene, having sustained wounds from 14 bullets in the chest and head. A subsequent report by local police authorities said the incident was being treated as a “targeted killing”, not as a terrorist attack, because the assassins appeared to focus solely on al-Batsh while ignoring several bystanders that were present.

Shortly after al-Batsh’s killing some reports identified him as a relative of Khaled al-Batsh, a senior official in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A subsequent statement published by Hamas-affiliated media said al-Batsh was a commander in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing. The militant group described him as a “loyal member” and called him a “shahid” (martyr), who was “assassinated by the hand of treachery”. The Gaza-based group also vowed retaliation against Israel and the Mossad intelligence agency.

Malaysian authorities said on Sunday that they did not rule out anything, including the possibility that al-Batsh may have been killed by militants belonging to the Islamic State. Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said that the possible involvement of “foreign agents” in al-Batsh’s killing was also being looked at. He added that the two main suspects behind the killing were believed to be “white, European-looking men”. On Monday, Malaysian police released facial composites of the two suspects, based on eyewitness testimonies. An accompanying press release said the two suspects were “around 1.80 meters tall, well built, had fair complexions, and were believed to be of Middle Eastern or Western descent”.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 23 April 2018 | Permalink | Research credit: R.B. and C.F.