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For
security considerations, Meshal has recently refrained from
talking to the media or taking part in political activities
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By
Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
September 30 (IslamOnline.net) - An Arab country has recently arrested a
terrorist cell affiliated to the Israeli intelligence (Mossad) which was
plotting to liquidate senior Hamas political leaders abroad, including
the head of the movement politburo Khaled Mashal, a senior Hamas
official confirmed Tuesday, September 30.
In
exclusive statements to IslamOnline.net over the phone, Mohammad Nazal,
himself a member of Hamas politburo, said officials in the said Arab
country, which he declined to name, notified the movement leaders they
must take utmost precautionary measures in their movements.
Because
of watertight security measures for his own protection, Mashal has
recently refrained from talking to the media or taking part in political
activities, he elaborated.
"Israel
is still adamant on its policy of assassinating Hamas leaders in and
outside Palestine but the movement has been able to thwart such schemes
by adopting strict security measures," Nazal asserted.
Media
reports suggest that Mashal, who moves among a number of Arab countries,
was last seen in Qatar.
The
Israeli occupation forces had recently stepped up its assassination
campaign against the political and military leaders of the Palestinian
resistance movement Hamas.
On
June 10 Israel carried out a failed assassination attempt on the life of
prominent Hamas political leader, Abdelaziz
al-Rantissi.
On
Thursday, August 21, Israel liquidated prominent Hamas political leader
Ismail Abu Shanab,
killing stone dead the unilateral truce
declared by the main Palestinian resistance factions on June 29.
Crossing
all red lines, Israeli forces tried on September 6 to assassinate Hamas
spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
and key political leader Ismail Haneya.
Few
days later, Israeli F-16s dropped a several-ton bomb at the house of
Hamas political leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar
in a densely-populated Gaza City neighborhood, killing two people,
including his eldest son Khaled.
According
to an Israeli research center, Israel carried out 135 assassinations
until May 2003, killing 249 members of various Palestinian resistance
factions.
Some
105 Palestinians, including 35 children, also died in the Israeli
operations which left 500 more wounded.
The
most prominent of those assassinated by Israel was Abu
Ali Mustafa,
the secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP), who was targeted by an Israeli Apache helicopter
gunships in the West Bank city of Ramallah on August 27, 2001.
On
July 22, 2002, Israeli F16 warplanes shelled the house of Salah Shehada,
head of the Hamas military wing in Gaza city, killing
him with 15 civilians in one of the fiercest Israeli attacks.
On
the second year of Aqsa Intifada, from 29 September 2001 to 29 September
2002, Israel killed 113 Palestinians in 15 assassination attacks.
In
the last seven months of the Intifada, 83 Palestinian activists were
killed - along with dozen others who happened to be on the scenes, in 43
Israeli assassinations.
On
Tuesday, May 6, a Palestinian official said Palestinians foiled an
assassination attempt on the life of President Yasser
Arafat by a poisonous substance.
The
assassination policy was derided by many critics as “war crimes”
under international law, and disapproved by not a small number of
Israelis.
A
poll published on June 13 found that two-thirds of Israelis want
a halt to Israel's practice of "targeted killings" of Palestinian
activists, a coined Israeli term for assassination.
