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The assassination of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 10 years later
It has now become an open secret. Israel has to this day never confirmed or even invalidated its role in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the senior chiefs of Hamas's military wing. Al-Mabhouh was found dead, aged 49, in his Dubai hotel room on January 20, 2010.
He was responsible for setting up the smuggling of arms to Hamas from overseas. The weapons were transported from arms depots located in Iran, came through the Red Sea to Sudan, and from there towards Sinai, to finally land in Gaza thanks to tunnels. During Operation Cast Lead in 2008, Hamas was determined to develop and improve its arms. At that time, Hamas understood that rockets were the most efficient way to confront Israel in the long term, so they focused on that.
According to Dubai Police, dozens of surveillance cameras allowed them to confirm that his assassination was disguised as death by natural causes. All that is known about this investigation is based on foreign sources. According to images from the surveillance cameras, the team arrived a day before his assassination at his hotel, the Al Bustan, a place in the city center where many businessmen stay. Meanwhile, according to these same foreign sources, Mossad agents arrived at the hotel and took a room right across from his. That is when they started preparing the assassination attempt.
The total time of the assassination of one of the most senior chiefs of Hamas's military wing was not even 30 minutes. The squad in charge of the assassination was divided into three teams: one tasked with the direct assassination of al-Mabhouh, another working undercover, and the third for surveillance. One observer said, "I am convinced they knew there would be cameras and they would be filmed. It is for reasons like these that they disguised themselves. They knew that if they were caught on camera, at least the police would not be able to identify them."
However, following ten days of investigation, Dubai's chief of police, Dahi Khalfan, revealed the identities of the squad members at a press conference. Twenty-seven suspected travelers had arrived in Dubai a few hours earlier from France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. At the airport, they presented their passports, which were British, Irish, French, and Australian, using the identities of real citizens with dual citizenship. They probably thought they would leave without a trace and no one would look for answers. But, from one perspective, a mistake was made: they used passports of people who had immigrated to Israel, and so the cross-reference pointed to one country in particular.
By then, the team was already far away. The agents had touched down in Paris, Hong Kong, and Johannesburg. From an operational perspective, it was a successful mission: the agents located him, followed him, got into his room, fulfilled their duties, and finally escaped Dubai without getting caught. Though already halfway across the world, the suspected agents were identified, and their photos were sent to Interpol and to the press.
The assassination remains engraved in the minds of many. With Dubai Police pointing fingers at Mossad and Israel, some even see it as a half failure, even though the field agents were never caught.