Killed engineer helped Hamas develop rockets. Spent Palestinian rocket. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
It was a bad weekend for the Hamas terrorist organization. On Saturday morning, an engineer involved in improving the Hamas rocket program was killed by gunmen on a motorcycle in the southeast Asian country of Malaysia, and roughly 24 hours later more than a dozen Hamas operatives were arrested near the pseudo-Palestinian capital of Ramallah. The New Straits Times, a Malaysian newspaper, reported that the gunmen waited for their target for 20 minutes before shooting him at point-blank range. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied accusations that Israel was behind the assassination in comments to Israel Radio that were republished by The Times of Israel.
Lieberman was quoted as saying the killed Hamas man, Dr. Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, was “no saint and he didn’t deal with improving infrastructure in Gaza. He was involved in improving rocket precision.” Posts on the Hamas website mourning his death claimed the slain al-Batsh was an electrical inventor.
Furthermore, the New Straits Times reported that al-Batsh was planning to travel to Turkey later on Saturday. Turkey has not only been a second home to Hamas members, but Hamas military activity in that country has occurred “unhindered as Turkish officials turn a blind eye and—on occasion—encourage it,” said an Israel Security Agency (ISA) press release in February.
Later in the weekend, 15 Hamas members—part of a broader roundup of 19 wanted Palestinians—were arrested by Israeli security officials, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Twitter page. In a tweet, the IDF Spokesperson said the operatives were arrested “after being in touch with Khaled al-Din Hamed, a terror operative from the Gaza Strip, who were instructed to carry out different missions on behalf of the Hamas terror organization.”
They were arrested near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, which is not far from Jerusalem. A printing house that published Hamas incitement was closed during the Israeli mission, according to the IDF Spokesperson.
“The IDF and ISA will continue to operate with determination against any terror operative in the Jerusalem area including terror operatives who collaborate with terror operatives of the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip,” tweeted the IDF Spokesperson.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themidesatupdate.com, April 22, 2018)