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Hamas says suspect arrested in alleged 2018 Mossad assassination of rocket expert in Malaysia

Fadi al-Batsh was a rocket expert and ‘no saint.’

By Sharon Wrobel, The Algemeiner

A Palestinian suspect who allegedly collaborated with Israel’s Mossad spy agency in the 2018 assassination of Hamas operative Fadi Mohammed al-Batsh in Malaysia was arrested, the Gaza-ruling terror group’s Interior Ministry claimed on Sunday.

The unnamed suspect has admitted his participation in the targeted killing of the Gaza-born electrical engineer, which allegedly was commissioned by the Mossad, the Hamas-run Gaza Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Hamas, which described al-Batsh as a “martyr,” stated that the terror group “highly appreciates the great efforts made by the Ministry of Interior and its security services in the Gaza Strip in its diligent follow-up and continuous investigations to uncover those involved in the assassination.”

Al-Batsh was gunned down in April 2018 by two men on a high-powered motorcycle who fired at least 14 shots outside his Kuala Lumpur apartment building, Malaysian authorities said. Following the incident, Hamas spoke of al-Batsh as its “son” and accused the Mossad of assassinating him.

At the time, Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman dismissed any involvement of the Mossad, but noted that the Palestinian scientist was a rocket expert and “no saint.”

“The man was no saint and he didn’t deal with improving infrastructure in Gaza – he was involved in improving rockets’ accuracy … We constantly see a settling of accounts between various factions in the terrorist organizations and I suppose that is what happened in this case,” Lieberman had told Israel Radio in 2018.