The assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (, ; 14 February 1961 – 19 January 2010) took place on 19 January 2010, in a hotel room in Dubai. Al-Mabhouh—a co-founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas—was 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. His assassination attracted international attention in part due to allegations that it was ordered by the Israeli government and carried out by Mossad agents holding fake or fraudulently obtained passports from several European countries and Australia.
The photographs of the 26 suspects and their aliases were subsequently placed on Interpol's most-wanted list. The Dubai police found that 12 of the suspects used British passports, along with six Irish, four French, one German, and three Australian passports.Dubai names suspects wanted for killing of Hamas man BBC news. Interpol and the Dubai police believed that the suspects stole the identities of real people, mostly Israeli dual citizens.11 'Mabhouh killers’ on Interpol list. The Jerusalem Post 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. Despite Hamas's claim, Dubai would not comment on the incident or identify the two Palestinian suspects.
According to initial reports, Al-Mabhouh was drugged,Mabhouh was sedated before killed Dubai Police then electrocuted and suffocated. Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim of the Dubai Police Force said the suspects tracked Al-Mabhouh to Dubai from Damascus, Syria. 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. Dubai's police chief said that he was "99% certain" that the assassination was the work of Israel's Mossad. On 1 March 2010, he stated that he was "sure" that all of the suspects are hiding in Israel.
He said that Dubai would ask for an arrest warrant to be issued for Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, if it is confirmed that the Mossad is involved and responsible for the assassination. The Hamas leadership also holds Israel responsible, and has vowed revenge.Analysis: So did the Mossad do it? The Jerusalem Post Hamas, which is itself on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, European Union lists of terrorist organizations, and also considered a terrorist organization by the governments of Israel,The Financial Sources of the Hamas Terror Organization (Israel MFA), 28 May 2010 and Japan, as is its military arm by the United KingdomProscribed terrorist groups United Kingdom Home Office and Australia,Listing of Terrorist Organisations , Australian Government Attorney-General's Department, 27 January 2006. Retrieved 28 May 2010 requested that Israel be added by the EU to its list because of suspicions that Israel was involved in the assassination.
Later in March, Dubai police chief said, "I am now completely sure that it was Mossad", and went on to say "I have presented the (Dubai) prosecutor with a request for the arrest of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the head of Mossad" for the assassination. Khalfan would also suggest that a Hamas associate fed information to Mossad. This was denied by Hamas which blamed Fatah for helping the Mossad hit team. Also 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. On 24 May, the Australian government expelled an Israeli diplomat after concluding that there was "no doubt Israel was behind the forgery of four Australian passports" related to the assassination. Similar action was taken by Ireland. Israel has refused to comment on the accusations that its security forces were behind the assassination. 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.'Dubai police chief claims Mossad threatened to kill him' – Middle East – Jerusalem Post
Sequence of events
+Timeline of key events19 January 201002:29:Team leader arrives in Dubai15:25:Mabhouh arrives at hotel15:51:Team reserves opposite room16:23:Mabhouh exits hotel20:24:Mabhouh comes back to hotelMabhouh is killed20:46:Team begins to leave hotel20 January 201013:51:Body of Mabhouh discovered
On 19 January 2010, al-Mabhouh was assassinated in his Dubai hotel room after being tracked by at least 29 suspects, of whom 26 carried forged or fraudulently-obtained passports from various European nations (whose passport photos were released), along with two Palestinians since arrested, and another unnamed suspect.
The Sunday Times reported that al-Mabhouh's departure from Damascus to Dubai on Emirates Flight no. 912 at 10:05 on 19 January 2010 was tracked by an agent on the ground in Damascus. 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.
Despite reports that al-Mabhouh traveled under a false passport with the fake name "Mahmoud Abdul Raouf Mohammed", Hamas and Dubai officials maintain that he entered the country under his own identity at 15:15. Normally, al-Mabhouh would have been protected by bodyguards, but their arrival was delayed because the guards could not get tickets for the same flight, because "[T]here was no room for them on the flight", said Talal Nasser, a spokesman for Hamas in Damascus. "Therefore, he traveled alone, and the security guards were slated to join him the next day."
According to a 2018 article by Le Monde citing senior French intelligence officials, the Mossad ran the operation to kill Mabhouh out of Paris. The Mossad allegedly set up a makeshift command and control center in a hotel in the Bercy neighborhood of Paris equipped with computers and secure phones. Dubai's police chief, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, stated that al-Mabhouh was transiting in Dubai before traveling to China. Upon arrival in Dubai, al-Mabhouh took a taxi to the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel and settled into room 230. He had asked for a room with no balcony and sealed windows, so no one could enter other than through the door. He left the hotel between 16:30 and 17:00, roughly an hour after checking in. What he did during the next three to four hours remains unclear. Dubai's police chief said he did not meet anyone in the emirate and that he went shopping. Meanwhile, the hit squad broke into his room. At 20:24 al-Mabhouh came back to the room, and subsequently failed to answer a call from his wife half an hour later.
Hotel surveillance footage was released to the public showing the suspects, who had arrived on separate flights, meeting in the hotel. While the suspects apparently used personal encrypted communication devices among themselves to avoid surveillance, the suspects were alleged by Dubai police to have sent and received a number of SMS messages to telephone numbers in Austria. When al-Mabhouh arrived around 15:00, two suspects dressed in tennis attire followed him to determine which room he had checked into, as well as the number of the room immediately across the hall. One of the lookout suspects could be seen on video delaying a tourist who exits the elevator on the second floor at this time, apparently to give other team members time to act. Investigators believe the electronic lock on al-Mabhouh's door may have been reprogrammed and that the killers gained entry to his room this way. The Muslim Observer, 18 February 2010. The locks in question, VingCard Locklink brand,Dubai police video, 21:42 can be accessed and reprogrammed directly at the hotel room door. According to Dubai Police, he was dead by 21:00 that evening.
On 20 January 2010 (the following day), a hotel cleaner attempted to gain entry, but found the door was locked from the inside. Hotel security was then called in to open the door. After the door was opened, al-Mabhouh's body was discovered on the bed. On the drawer next to the bed, the assassins had placed a small bottle of medicine to make it appear as if he had died of natural causes.
Investigation
Cause of death Initially, Dubai authorities believed al-Mabhouh had died of natural causes. Fawzi Benomran, the Dubai police coroner, said, "It was meant to look like death from natural causes during sleep." It took 10 days for the Dubai police to come to the conclusion that al-Mabhouh was assassinated. Benomran described the determination of the exact cause of death as "one of the most challenging cases" his department faced. 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. 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.
Al-Mabhouh's family said that medical teams who examined his body determined that he died in his hotel room after being strangled and receiving a massive electric shock to the head, and that blood samples examined by a French laboratory confirms that electrocution was the cause of death. According to Reuters news agency, traces of poison were found in al Mabhouh's autopsy. Dubai authorities stated they were ruling the death a homicide and were working with the International Criminal Police Organization to investigate the incident.
Other news reports gave varying causes of death, including suffocation with a pillow and poisoning. In an international press conference General Tamim, the head of the investigation, said that the exact cause of death is yet to be concluded. Moreover, on 1 March 2010, the Dubai Police stated that he was first drugged. Major General Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina as the deputy commander of Dubai's police gave details of the death of al-Mabhouh after forensic tests. Al-Mabhouh was injected in his leg with succinylcholine, a quick-acting, depolarizing paralytic muscle relaxant. It causes almost-instant loss of motor skills, but does not induce loss of consciousness or anaesthesia. Then, al-Mabhouh was suffocated. Al-Mazeina said, "The assassins used this method so that it would seem that his death was natural."
Suspects