http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=121827&language=en
Hamas: Israel Assassinated a Senior Hamas Commander in Dubai




29/01/2010 Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Palestinian Islamic resistance group said on Friday.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed on January 20, Izzat al-Rishq told Reuters in the Syrian capital Damascus, but did not specify how the assassination was carried out.

Al-Mabhouh was suspected of having participated in the capture and subsequent killing of two Israeli occupation soldiers in 1989.

Rishq said Mabhouh was an "important" member of Izz el-Din al-Qassam brigades, Hamas's military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s.

He said Mabhouh, who had been living in Syria since 1989, was assassinated a day after he arrived in Dubai but that Hamas could not say more at present about how he was killed.

The report comes at a time when Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a crisis in negotiations over a prisoner swap deal that would secure the release of captive occupation soldier Gilad Shalit.

German newspaper Der Spiegel reported earlier this week that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retracted his last offer to Hamas for a prisoner exchange deal.

According to the newspaper's sources, the current state of affairs puts negotiations at risk of failure.