Hamas rocket engineer assassinated in Malaysia, Israel ‘blamed’ for hit

A Palestinian rocket engineer killed in Malaysia received funeral honors in Gaza reserved from high-ranking Hamas military commanders. Hamas said Israel was responsible.

By: World Israel News Staff

A 35-year-old Hamas engineer named Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, described by the terrorist organization as a “loyal” member, was killed on the streets of Kuala Lumpur in a drive-by motorcycle shooting early Saturday morning.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim announced that one of two suspects on the motorcycle “fired 10 shots, four of which hit [Batsh] in the head and body. He died on the spot.”

According to Hadashot TV news, Hamas ships young Gazans to Malaysia for technical training, with the nation deemed a a “paradise” for the terrorist organization by Israel’s Channel 10.

In Gaza, at the entrance of mourner’s tent erected by Hamas, a banner lauded Batsh as a “commander” in the terror group, which also positioned ten masked fighters there, adhering to protocol for senior Hamas commander funerals.

Hamas referred to the dead engineer as a “martyr” and his family immediately blamed the Israeli intelligence service for orchestrating the hit.

While Batsh was affiliated with Hamas, his cousin Khaled al-Batsh serves as a senior official in the Islamic Jihad terror group. The cousin joined other family members blaming the Mossad for the assassination.

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Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, told local media that the assailants were “white men” driving a BMW motorbike and that an initial investigation indicated they were Europeans linked to a foreign intelligence agency, reported Reuters.