‘Mossad eyeing at least 6 more Palestinian targets’

KUALA LUMPUR: Israel’s intelligence agency with tentacles in the country may strike again at their targets at the next available opportunity.

This mission of alleged extrajudicial elimination of certain targets, which Middle Eastern intelligence officials had said was part of a broader operation spearheaded by the Israeli national intelligence agency Mossad, is supposedly aimed at dismantling a Hamas programme of sending Palestine’s most promising scientists and engineers abroad.

Mossad is certain that these targets are in countries — including Malaysia — to gather knowledge in technology and weaponry to fight the Jewish state.

Sources told the New Straits Times that it is believed that Mossad had set its sights on at least six Palestinians living here.

Several of them are members of academia at local universities, lecturing in professional disciplines, including engineering.

In one of Israel’s propaganda sites, an icon of the Malaysian flag leads to a list of supposed targets. It was clear to these Palestinians that they were on Mossad’s radar and that their abduction or killing could just be a matter of time.

Their complete profiles contained recent photographs of these men going about their daily routine. Pictures of their vehicles were also uploaded as a subtle message.

Mossad did not forget to mention that they were married, who their wives were, as well as the fact that they had children.

In 2018, as Malaysians were readying for the general election, Mossad agents struck in the early hours in Gombak. In a brazen attack, Fadi Mohamed al-Batsh, 35, was brutally gunned down as he was walking to a mosque.

Fadi was a Palestinian engineer and a senior lecturer at Universiti Kuala Lumpur British Malaysian Institute. He was also on the list of the Israeli website. His mugshot was in black and white, as opposed to the rest.

His description said that Fadi was involved in “R&D projects for advanced weapons and was part of Hamas’ Malaysian terror cell”.

Last month, Mossad struck again as Malaysia prepared to dissolve Parliament for the 15th General Election.

The New Straits Times reported yesterday that Mossad had recruited and used its local assets to hunt down two high-value Palestinian targets and succeeded in abducting one of them from the streets here.

The covert operation however, swiftly went south, as police swung into action and raided their “safe house” in Hulu Langat, all within 24 hours.

They rescued the victim in the midst of being interrogated by two Israeli men via a video call. He had been beaten up and tortured by his Malaysian captors.

The Israeli spy agency had denied involvement in Fadi’s assassination, despite Hamas having allegedly captured a man who had confessed to having been assigned the job by Mossad.

Mossad, however, had not reacted to allegations involving the latest botched operation, although the series of stories were widely picked up by Israeli media.

NST