Dagan, who directed the Mossad from 2002 to 2011, was wanted in UAE for his alleged role in the Dubai assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in January 2010. It gets worse. The most high-profile of these was the elimination in Damascus of Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's military chief. [128][129] The German prosecutor indicated that Brodsky would not have to face trial after all, but instead that "the matter can now be dealt with by written proceedings," most likely resulting in a fine. According to media reports, Nasser was in Dubai in the days before al-Mabhouh's killing and was intimately familiar with his schedule and whereabouts. Dubai Police Chief '99%' Sure Israel's Mossad Killed Hamas Militant - NPR The intention is to rig the mechanism so that the hit men can enter the room using an unregistered electronic key while also being careful not to accidentally disable Al-Mabhouh's own key. The 2015 Israeli TV series False Flag is also loosely based on the story of the assassination. Oddly, Folliard and Daveron are the only ones at the meeting who have changed their appearances. Initially, Dubai authorities believed al-Mabhouh had died of natural causes. There are some questions about timing that are worth pausing over here. [9][54] Then al-Mabhouh was suffocated. Along with signs of struggle in the rooma damaged headboard, for examplethese details would seem to suggest that the target was smothered to death. [30] Salah Bardawil, a Hamas legislator, said al-Mabhouh put himself at risk by booking his trip online and informing family in Gaza of the telephone number of the hotel at which he would be staying on his trip. Hamas assassination: If Mossad did it, Israel wonders if it was worth Widespread speculation, which Dubai police allegations support, is that he was killed by Israeli Mossad agents. Rafi Eitan, now in his 80s, was at one time one of the Mossad's master spies. It has also become apparent that in order to avoid calling one another's cell phones directly, the operatives used a dedicated private switchboard in Austria. Once he calmed down, though, a cursory review of the hotel-security footage from the cameras outside room 230 at the time of Al-Mabhouh's death convinced Tamim that he needed to open an investigation immediately. On the one. They have come to kill a man named Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, a Hamas leader whose code name within the Mossadthe Israeli intelligence agencyis Plasma Screen. One went straight to Dubai, while the other joined him after first going to Ramallah, where he was sentenced to death by a Palestinian Authority court, a punishment generally handed down to Israeli collaborators. Netanyahu was also forced to free the Islamist . [2][7] Two Palestinians, believed by Hamas to be former Fatah security officers and current employees of a senior Fatah official, were taken into custody in Dubai, on suspicions that one of them provided logistical assistance to the hit team. [47] Dubai authorities stated they were ruling the death a homicide and were working with the International Criminal Police Organization to investigate the incident. As one longtime Caesarea fighter recently told me, "If the Mossad is the temple of Israel's intelligence community, then Caesarea is its holy of holies. COMMENTARY: Mossad assassination in Dubai was highly professional, but When Al-Mabhouh's body was discovered by a hotel maid, at around one thirty the following afternoon, roughly seventeen hours after he'd been killed, there was at first no reason to suspect foul play. When asked by an interviewer what the hit team's biggest mistake was, Tamim answered that the presence of two men waiting for hours in the lobby in tennis gear with uncovered rackets was so bizarre that it instantly raised suspicion. There would have been little the Mossad or Israel could have done to save its operatives. The official report does not provide even a sketchy outline of the missing hours. [43] According to Reuters news agency, traces of poison were found in al Mabhouh's autopsy. The news of his arrival is conveyed to all the teams waiting at the other hotels, and they now return to the central meeting place. The web of intrigue surrounding the death of a senior Hamas official became more tangled today after Dubai police identified a further 15 members of an alleged Mossad squad who carried out the. And so the Mossad "with a knife between its teeth" likely is entering another period of confusion and self-doubt. In the Al Bustan, Al-Mabhouh takes the elevator to his room, and the two Mossad operatives, tennis rackets still in hand, ride up in the same elevator. [119], Dubai Police chief Dahi Khalfan said on 3 March 2010 he requested for the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan for the murder. [108], The New York Post originally reported that Tal has disappeared since his company was identified as the issuer of some of the killers' credit cards, with his Brooklyn neighbors telling the NYPD that he left the country. February 25, 2010 | Tel Aviv The Hamas assassination in Dubai has led to growing accusations about the hit squad allegedly responsible for the death of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Despite Hamas's claim, Dubai would not comment on the incident or identify the two Palestinian suspects. At 8 p.m., the seven-person group in 237 makes its move. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. In a humiliating blow to the agency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to admit that the Mossad plot had been a terrible failure. [45], The Khaleej Times quoted an unnamed senior police official as saying that four masked assailants had shocked al-Mabhouh's legs before using a pillow to suffocate him. The Mossad: Three tales of assassination - Unpacked [4] Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim of the Dubai Police Force said the suspects tracked Al-Mabhouh to Dubai from Damascus, Syria. Thursday the head of the Dubai police investigation, General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said he was almost certain Israel's intelligence organization Mossad was responsible for the assassination of Hamas . Israel: Hamas commander killed in Dubai was key arms smuggler; Dubai police point to Israel and Mossad in Hamas assassination; With mounting anger at Israel over assassination, Dubai walks a fine line 2010 murder in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, For pictures and passport information, see, Festnahme im Fall Mabhuh, (engl. Given that the operatives are under the constant gaze of security cameras throughout the city, the "new" Daveron and Folliard run the risk of being linked to the "old" Daveron and Folliard through the identity of the individuals they've met with and passed by throughout the daythe kind of mistake that is almost incomprehensible for an elite Mossad team to make. I and Abu Sahib [Nasser] had a predetermined signal. A few minutes later, Folliard arrives at the Al Bustan and goes straight up to 237. The footage from the security cameras shows Daveron quickly moving toward him, blocking his line of sight and engaging him in idle conversation. What did he do during the next four hours, which were to be the last of his life? [122], On 4 June 2010, Polish police arrested a man at Warsaw airport carrying a false passport with the name Uri Brodsky, who was wanted by German authorities. "[132][133][134], The day following al-Mabhouh's death, Hamas' armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that he died of terminal cancer in a hospital in the United Arab Emirates. Had an alert guard noticed what was going on, the mission might have ended quite differently, with the target alive and the team members imprisoned in a hostile country. What they soon found out (as was reported in the German magazine Der Spiegel) was that a valid German passport had been issued in June 2009 to a Mossad operativeusing the name Michael Bodenheimerwho claimed German citizenship through his "father." I heard him breathe heavily and die. This was critical, as it would buy the Caesarea fighters precious time to leave the emirate before the alarm was sounded. In what has become a riveting story of international intrigue, Dubai's police chief said he was virtually certain Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, was behind the killing of a Hamas. "Take yourselves and your bank accounts and your weapons and your forged fucking passports and get out of my country," he reportedly shouted. Because Dagan refashioned the Mossad in his own image, and because he drove out anyone who was willing to question his decisions, there was no one in the agency to tell him that the Dubai operation was badly conceived and badly planned. It's impossible to know for sure. [4], On 30 September 2010, Dubai's police chief Dahi Khalfan said he received death threats from Israel's spy agency Mossad linked to his role in uncovering details of the assassination of al-Mabhouh, but whether such calls existed remains unconfirmed.[25][26][27]. A bumbling Mossad hand suspected in Dubai assassination JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli intelligence experts dismissed on Sunday the prospect of lasting diplomatic fallout for Israel or damage to its Mossad spy agency over the spotlight shone on the. He went on to describe picking up the soldier, Avi Sasportas, at a place called Hodayah Junction and offering him a ride. [111] The chief of Dubai Police Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said that there are 648 hours of video films in which the 27 suspected persons are appearing[112] and announced that the police has found the DNA of four suspected agents. One of them follows Al-Mabhouh down the corridor at a discreet distance, in order to confirm his room number230and to get a sense of the layout of the hotel floor. Seeks Briton in Hamas Official's Death", "Suspect in Dubai assassination used identity of fallen IDF soldier", "Ireland says passports used in Dubai fake", "Ireland confirms 'Irish' Dubai killers don't exist", "They came, they killed, and in hours they were gone", 2 ASSASSINAT D'UN CADRE DU HAMAS A DUBAI, "Paris summons Israeli envoy over Mabhouh", "Dubai seeks global dragnet for Hamas slaying", "German passport tied to Dubai hit wasn't forged", "The Dubai Assassins: Alleged Killer Left Traces in Cologne and Israel", Israeli wanted over Dubai killing 'held in Poland',Source: BBC News Online, 12 June 2010, "Parents of Aussies named as suspects in the assassination of a Hamas militant fear their children's lives are in danger", "Fourth Australian passport used in Dubai hit", "Kill squad passport link: it's not my son, says Aussie mother", "New suspect named in Dubai assassination - Times Online", ""'' ' ' ", "In fallout from Mabhouh killing, Australia says passport abuse is 'not the act of a friend', "Fourth Australian named by Dubai in Hamas killings", "Passport in name of Joshua Aaron Krycer linked to Hamas assassination", "Dubai murder: The British-Israelis who had their identities stolen", "Analysis: If it was Mossad, then was it a success? Citizens of Israel are of two minds over allegations that Mossad, which have not been confirmed, was behind the assassination of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. The problem is that multiplying its volume of activity many times over came with the price of compromising on security protocols. Military, student, teacher discounts, 2023 Cond Nast. [91] According to former katsa Victor Ostrovsky, a Canadian citizen, the Mossad formerly asked permission to use the passports of Israelis with dual nationality, but "I believe at some point, they stopped asking. [36] Dubai's police chief, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, stated that al-Mabhouh was transiting in Dubai before traveling to China. During the meeting, Dagan points to a large photograph hanging on his office wall of a bearded Jew wrapped in a prayer shawl, kneeling on the ground with his arms in the air. Show more Saeed Hamiri, M.D., of the Dubai forensic lab, said the crime-scene investigators found a trickle of blood on Al-Mabhouh's pillow, bruises on his nose, face, and neck, and an injection mark on his right hip. Greylock, which has offices in the U.S. and Herzliya, Israel, was established by Moshe Mor, a former military intelligence captain in the Israeli army. [120], He also announced Canada had arrested a suspect who "was among the preparatory group which arrived in the country and left it before the crime was committed." [citation needed] Al-Mabhouh, later, left the hotel and while several of the suspects kept watch, it is thought that (a) suspect(s) tried to gain entry to his room. He publicly called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and of Meir Dagan, whom he challenged to "be a man" and take responsibility for the assassination. Subscribe to this podcast. The Dubai Job | GQ [31], Despite reports that al-Mabhouh traveled under a false passport with the fake name "Mahmoud Abdul Raouf Mohammed",[9][30][32] Hamas and Dubai officials maintain that al-Mabhouh entered the country under his own identity at 15:15. The Dubai police had good reason to gloss over this part of the narrative, if they were indeed aware of it. In an interview he gave to the Al Jazeera network, Al-Mabhouh recalled one of those killings in detail. Dubai airport officials carried out routine retinal scans on 11 of the suspects sought in the assassination when they entered the country and Dubai police said they would publish the scans through Interpol. Germany: One passport with the name Michael Bodenheimer. [21], In March 2010, the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, expelled an Israeli diplomat after the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency discovered that Israel had forged copies of British passports. [23] Similar action was taken by Ireland. The security camera outside the entrance to the men's and women's bathrooms was recording all of this in real time. Feb. 17, 2010 -- When a group of harmless looking tourists reportedly employed fake passports and elaborate disguises to kill a top Hamas leader in his Dubai hotel room last month, the hit . They simply did not believe that a minnow in the world of intelligence services such as Dubai would be any match for Israel's Caesarea fighters. They were renewed only in the mid-1990s, after the Mossad and SIS signed a memorandum stating that neither would operate without consent on each other's soil or work against each other's interests. With whom did he meet? They immediately go to separate hotels, where Folliard and Daveron pay for their rooms in cash, but most of the other team members are using a prepaid credit card called a Payoneer, a fact that will be significant to the investigation to come. In these countries, operatives have access to multiple getaway routes in case of emergency (and there are Israeli embassies to escape to as a last resort); it is assumed that if a Mossad spy is caught in a base country, a discreet solution can likely be found with the assistance of the local intelligence servicesan option referred to in the Mossad as the "soft cushion"). Back in July 1973, a Caesarea hit team on a mission to liquidate the head of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black Septemberthe group responsible for the murders of eleven Israeli team members at the Munich Olympicsmistakenly killed a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway. March 4, 2010, 11:10 AM PST / Source: The Associated Press The killing of a Hamas operative in a Dubai hotel may signal the end of an era: the moment when modern technology finally caught up with. The only thing they can do until Al-Mabhouh's arrival is review plans and contingencies and wait to see how their target's movements unfold. Al-Mabhouha co-founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamaswas wanted by the Israeli government for the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 as well as purchasing arms from Iran for use in Gaza; these have been cited as a possible motive for the assassination.[1]. They arrived from different European destinations and stayed at different hotels, presumably to avoid being detected and, with the exception of three of its members suspected of "helping to facilitate" who had left on a ferry for Iran several months before the assassination, departed after the assassination to different countries. It has been suggested that List of assassinations of scientists attributed to Mossad be merged into this article. Assassination of Yehia El-Mashad (June 13, 1980) - Mossad operation held in Paris, France, in which the Egyptian atomic scientist Yehia El-Mashad, who was involved in the development of the Iraqi nuclear reactor, was assassinated. [176], On 19 February, Hamas representatives said that the two Palestinians arrested in Dubai, Ahmad Hassanain and Anwar Shheibar, are former members of Fatah's security forces and work at a construction company in Dubai owned by Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah security official. On the way to the meeting, he walks through the lobby of a third hotel and enters the restroom. [170][171] Landau dismissed the claim, stating that his delegation was in Abu Dhabi, some 120km from Dubai, and was escorted by an eight-man UAE security team at all times. He took two bullets in the face and one in the chest and died from the first shot. Where did he go? He left the hotel between 16:30 and 17:00, roughly an hour after checking in. The two were linked to a Gaza death cell under Dahlan's command, which worked to suppress dissidence among Palestinians. "This man," Dagan says, "was my grandfather, Dov Ehrlich." [5][62] Dubai police, who stated that their airport personnel were trained by Europeans to identify faked documents, said that the European passports used were not forgeries. A real Holocaust survivor named Hans Bodenheimer did in fact exist, but it was not the man who applied for German citizenship.). "Dagan's unique expertise," Sharon said in closed meetings, "is the separation of an Arab from his head." Alleged Assassins Caught on Dubai Surveillance Tape | WIRED But since dozens of calls were made to and from this short list of Austrian numbers over a period of less than two days, the moment that the cover of a single operative was blown and his cell phone records became available to the authorities, all others who called or received calls from the same numbers were at risk of being identified. [9][114] Hamas claimed that their arrest was evidence linking the Palestinian Authority to the killing, while the Palestinian Authority retorted by accusing the arrested Palestinians of being members of Hamas. Naturally, this is done without the authorization of the countries involved. Because of these successes, Dagan's tenure as director of the Mossad was repeatedly extended, most recently by Benjamin Netanyahu in October 2009, and today he is one of the longest-serving directors in Israel's history. They are both being held to ensure that no one comes to execute them. The short list that emerged was then checked against hotel registers, and footage from hotel security cameras at the times these individuals checked in made it possible to put a face to each name. The number and frequency of covert operations increased dramatically. A little after four o'clock, the command team, with the exception of Elvinger, makes its way to the Al Bustan. ", Ronen Bergman is the senior political and military analyst for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth_ and the author of several books, including_ By Any Means Necessary_ and_ The Secret War with Iran_. A readout of activity that took place on the hotel room's electronic door lock indicated that an attempt was made to reprogram al-Mabhouh's electronic door lock at this time. One year ago, an elite Mossad hit squad traveled to Dubai to kill a high-ranking member of Hamas. And along with success came hubris. Mr. al-Mabhouh was a founder of Hamas . [100], YNetnews said some hit squad members fled to Iran after the assassination. 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In 1997 the Mossad tried to assassinate Khaled Mashal, the political leader of Hamas, by spraying a chemical agent on his ear as he walked down a street in Amman, Jordan. Video released by the Dubai Police documenting the assassination: This page was last edited on 20 July 2023, at 15:23. [46] Another story reported by Uzi Mahnaimi stated that a hit team murdered al-Mabhouh with a heart-attack inducing drug, then proceeded to take photographs of his documents before leaving. Britain today declared its "outrage" at the use of forged British passports by a hit squad that killed a Hamas official in Dubai, and dispatched police investigators to the Gulf emirate to. It is not known precisely how the team administered the toxin in their first attempt, though the suspicion is that they either slipped it into a drink or smeared it on one of the fixtures in his hotel room. He walks over to where Kevin Daveron is sitting, places the suitcase beside him, and then heads to the reception desk, where he checks in and receives the key to the room that he booked by phone earlier that afternoon. The information is alleged by the Dubai police to have been communicated to a third party, who then telephoned from a different hotel to book room 237. The 1997 attempted assassination in Amman, by two Mossad officers posing as Canadian tourists, unwittingly boosted Meshaal's status in Hamas. After sitting for four hours in the lobby, rackets in hand, the fake tennis players finally leave the scene. [168], On 29 January, Hamas' deputy politburo chief Moussa Abu Marzouk said, "Mossad agents are those who assassinated al-Mabhouh". France: One passport with the name Peter Elvinger (suspected of being used by the hit squad leader. [citation needed] The evidence for this is the fact that four men arrived by elevator and entered the hallway where the victim's room and the alleged perpetrator's rooms were located at this time, and the same four men immediately left after the assassination is supposed to have happened.

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