Lyons, France / Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Dubai police have added 16 more international arrest warrants to the 11 already issued, linked to the 20 January death of Hamas military leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh. Interpol has added the new warrants to its existing Red Notices for the case. Interpol, based in Lyons, insists on the likely use of identity theft by the murderers. “Since Intepol has reason to believe that the suspects linked to this murder have stolen the identities of real people, the Red Notices specify that the names used were aliases used to commit murder,” its web site notes. “Interpol has officially made public the photos and the names fraudulently used on the passports in order to limit the ability of accused murderers from traveling freely using the same false passports.”
The international criminal police organization says it contacted the Geneva-based World Economic Forum in January to alert it to the increased risk of terrorists traveling on documents using stolen identities, which makes it easier for them to avoid detection.
Dubai police are now saying that Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was first drugged with a muscle relaxant, then suffocated in a hotel room. They believe evidence is more clearly pointing to Israel’s Mossad undercover agency, but Israel has not commented on the latest details or its possible role. Police Sunday 28 February said the drug, succinylcholine, was used to make it appear the victim had not struggled, possibly in order to stage what would look like a natural death.
Links to other sites: Dubai police report, Reuters
The number of suspects in the murder of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in December has now grown to 26, say Dubai police, with Australian passports reportedly used. Australia called in the Israeli ambassador and issued a sharp warning that it will not tolerate any government condoning or being behind the theft of its citizens’ passports, with suspicion growing that Israel was behind the murder. Australia has reportedly warned Israel in the past not to use Australian passports for its espionage activities. The Israeli government has said there is no proof that Mossad, its secret service, is involved. Some of the Australians identified, who are living in Israel, were shocked to learn of what appears to be several cases of identity theft.
The unfolding drama of the thriller-style assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, killed 20 January at the al-Bustan hotel in Dubai, leaves a growing number of questions unanswered, and Britain is now joining the investigations. Stephen Lander, the head of Serious Organized Crime Agency (Soca) and former MI5 (British secret service) boss, has been put in charge of looking into the apparent use of British passports by the team of 11 who staged the murder. Austria and France are involved in trying to track the murderers.
It is unclear if passports were forged, stolen, or valid documents. Israeli spy agency Moussad appears to be a strong suspect as the organization behind the killing, but Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday 17 February that there is no proof of this, while not denying that Israel may have been involved. Rafi Eitan, a high-ranking Mossad official, denies any involvement by the group, according to Haaretz.
Confusion over the passports reigns, with Ireland and Britain saying they believed passports for their countries were likely forged. Meanwhile, Haaretz reports that “Men with the same names as seven of the 11 suspects whose European passport photos were distributed by Dubai this week reside in Israel, and those reached by reporters insisted their identities had been stolen and noted the pictures were not a match.
”Six of the men are Britons who immigrated to Israel. The seventh is an American Israeli, whose name Dubai said was on a German passport used by one of the assassins.” The Jerusalem Post says the Israeli immigrants were astonished to find their names on the list of suspects issued by Dubai.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Times, UK and timeline issued by Dubai police on Channel 4 TV, Belfast
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have denied that two high-ranking military men involved in last year’s Israeli military operation in Gaza were disciplined for using phosphorus in a built-up area. The IDF is responding to an Israeli government report submitted to the United Nations this past weekend outlining its investigation into alleged abuses and crimes during last year’s incursion into the Gaza strip.
The two men were said to have been disciplined when they authorized the use of white phosphorus shells in an attack on a Hamas position two days before the end of operation Cast Lead. Some of the shells landed in a UN compound and wounded three people.
The Israeli government report is a partial response to last year’s Goldstone Report which alleges possible war crimes against civilians by both Israeli forces and Hamas before and during the conflict. The IDF had repeatedly denied the use of phosphorus shells, which are permitted in battlefield conditions but not when they may endanger civilians. The shells are used as incendiary devices and burn for hours.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UN Human Rights Council, meeting in a special session 15 and 16 October, has approved the report into possible war crimes during the December 2008-January 2009 incursion by Israel into the Gaza Strip. The council will forward the report to the UN General Assembly for consideration. At the end of the session countries voted, 25-6, to approve the report, and 11 countries abstained.
Israel argued that the report was one-sided and ignored the attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians which precipitated the war. The US voted against approval, saying that it would hamper Mideast peace efforts.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva will reopen a debate Thursday 15 October on the conduct of both sides in last winter’s brief war in Gaza, Palestine, between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza strip’s political authority. A report by former South African judge Richard Goldstone suggests both armed groups may have committed war crimes. It recommends that they conduct their own impartial investigations within six months or have the case referred to the International Criminal Court. A call by Libya for the UN in New York to take up the report by strongly rebuffed by Israel which said late Wednesday 14 October that as long as the report is “on the table” there can be no peace negotiations with Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), the nominal representative of the Palestinians, initially asked for the debate on the report to be deferred, but it came under sharp criticism from Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza strip since elections in 2007 forced out Fatah and the PA.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Israel’s ambassador to Switzerland, Ilan Elgar, will meet Thursday in Bern with the Swiss foreign affairs department to discuss a recent visit by a Hamas delegation. Israel’s foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Ygal Palmor 15 July strongly criticized Switzerland for receving the group, which he says visited Geneva two weeks go to meet with an NGO (non-governmental oreganization). He noted that although Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, Hamas is on an EU list of groups banned for terrorist activities.
CNN reports that on the eve of an Arab summit in Kuwait the Arab world is being pulled in a tug of world that has Egypt and other countries who want to broker a peace between Israel and Hamas pitted against nations like Qatar who are more sympathetic to Hamas and its goals. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the ICRC’s latest update on the humanitarian aid situation says it was “a devastating blow” when renewed fighting 12 January knocked out recently repaired power supplies from Israel to Gaza, essential for hospitals and other parts of the civilian infrastructure.
Israel and Hamas leaders in Gaza are both refusing the ceasefire proposed by the UN and leaders from around the world. BBC
Hamas and Israeli troops were fighting after Israeli ground troops entered the Gaza Strip on the eighth day of fighting in the area. Reuters
Reuters reports that the “fiercest offensive in decades” continued Monday in the Gaza Strip, with Israel readying troops and tanks for a ground attack that looks increasingly likely. Three people were killed in Israel by rockets launched from Gaza. The wire service credits medical officials in Gaza as saying 335 people are dead and some 700 injured following Israeli air attacks. Related stories, Jerusalem Post, Al-Jazeera
The Israeli-Hamas six month Gaza truce negotiated by Egypt ended Friday with each side accusing the other of breaking it. Israel says Hamas, which fired rockets over the weekend, injuring one person, has extended the reach of its rockets during the ceasefire, and Hamas says Israel has not lifted its blockade of Gaza according to the terms of the truce. BBC
