Middle Eastern intelligence officials have confirmed that Israel's Mossad spy agency was behind the assassination of Fadi al-Batsh, an electrical engineering lecturer and family man who was also an undercover technology expert for the military wing of Hamas, according to a report by the New York Times.
Mossad chief Yossi Cohen ordered an operation aimed at disassembling a Hamas assignment that dispatches Gaza’s most talented scientists and engineers abroad to attain know-how and weaponry to fight Israel.
The Israeli spy agency has been stunned by Hamas’s advances in drones and underwater vehicles, according to officials. Batsh co-authored a paper in 2013 on drone applications.
Malaysia's deputy prime minister said the two suspects were believed to be linked to a foreign intelligence service.
The assassination is not the first for Mossad, which killed Tunisian engineer Mohammed al-Zavari in December 2017. Zavari was a leader in the field of aircrafts and drones. Mossad also assassinated many Palestinian politicians between the 1970s and 1990s.
Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip and claimed Batsh as its "son," believes Mossad is responsible for his assassination. Batsch’s family also shares the same belief.
Malaysian authorities said that two men on a high-powered motorcycle fired at least 14 shots at Batsh outside his Kuala Lumpur apartment building on Saturday, killing him on the spot. Friends and students have described Batsh, who moved from Gaza to Malaysia seven years ago, as always smiling and well-liked.
Batsh was repatriated to Gaza and buried on Thursday.
Israel would retaliate against any Iranian attack on Tel Aviv by striking Tehran, Israel's defense minister said in remarks published on Thursday, as the arch-foes faced off over Syria.
"Israel doesn't want war ... but if Iran attacks Tel Aviv, we will hit Tehran," Avigdor Lieberman told the Arabic-language, Saudi-owned news website Elaph, which is based in London.
Tel Aviv is Israel's commercial capital, where its military is headquartered. Iran, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist, often threatens strikes on Tel Aviv.
