Well, it appears (if the allegation is true) that Israel is up to its old tricks of killing people without due process - and in Dubai!
Hamas military commander 'assassinated in Dubai'
Hamas said Mr Mabhouh was behind the abduction of two Israeli soldiers
A senior Hamas military commander has been assassinated by Israel in Dubai, the Palestinian Islamist group claims.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 50, a founder of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, "died a martyr on 20 January in suspicious circumstances", a statement said.
Hamas gave no further details, but vowed to "retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate moment".
An Israeli government spokesman would not comment, in line with Israel's usual policy on similar allegations.
The authorities in the UAE have also not yet commented.
'Close to leader'
A Hamas political bureau member in Damascus, Izzat al-Rishq, told the BBC that Mr Mabhouh, who had been living in Syria since 1989, had been very close to its exiled political leader, Khaled Meshaal.
Our brother had been a target for the occupier ever since his participation in the kidnapping operation against the two Zionist soldiers
Hamas statement
"Mabhouh died a martyr in Dubai on 20 January 2010 in suspicious circumstances that require an inquiry in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates authorities," Hamas said in a statement.
"We in Hamas hold the Zionist enemy responsible for the criminal assassination of our brother, and we pledge to God and to the blood of the martyrs and to our people to continue his path of jihad and martyrdom," it added.
Hamas said Mr Mabhouh had been responsible for the abduction in 1989 of two Israeli soldiers, who were both later killed.
He also masterminded a number of other attacks, for which the Israeli authorities demolished his home in Gaza, it added.
Mr Mabhouh spent several periods in Israeli custody. After his last release, "he spent his life being hounded by the Zionist occupier until he succeeded in leaving the Gaza Strip," Hamas said.
"Our brother had been a target for the occupier ever since his participation in the kidnapping operation against the two Zionist soldiers, and for his role and support for the resistance."
Mr Mabhouh's body was flown to Syria on Thursday and his funeral is due to be held in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, on the outskirts of Damascus, later on Friday.
Rockets
The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades have carried out hundreds of attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israeli troops and civilians.
The Brigades have launched rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns close to the border.
The rocket fire at civilian areas was the reason the Israeli military gave for launching a 22-day attack on Gaza beginning in December 2008.
Hamas's charter effectively calls for the destruction of Israel, although its leaders have more recently said they would consider a long-term ceasefire in exchange for a state on the land Israel occupied in 1967..
Israel has a long history of assassination operations targeting militants. Most famously, in 1987 in Tunisia, agents killed Abu Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organisation's military leader.
But in 1997, one mission went wrong, when two agents were arrested in Jordan after attempting to poison Mr Meshaal and Israel was forced to hand over an antidote by the US government.
More recently, Israel denied that it was behind the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the military commander of the Lebanese Shia militant group, Hezbollah, in Damascus in 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8486531.stm
Cheers,
Shafique
