Netanyahu authorised Hamas killing

As the man who gives final authorisation for such operations,Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh,a member of Hamas,the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, the newspaper reported. It said Mossad had received intelligence that Mabhouh was planning a trip to Dubai and they were preparing an operation to assassinate him there,off-guard in a luxury hotel.

The mission was not regarded as unduly complicated or risky,and Netanyahu gave his authorisation,in effect signing Mabhouhs death warrant. The team had already rehearsed,using a hotel in Tel Aviv as a training ground without alerting its owners, the report said. Typically on such occasions,the Prime Minister intones: The people of Israel trust you. Good luck., the Times reported.

Mabhouh was assassinated in a Dubai hotel on January 20 and Dubai police had suspected the involvement of Mossad in the killing. Another British daily, The Daily Mail,said Netanyahu personally congratulated members of the Mossad team that allegedly killed Mabhouh ahead of their departure to Dubai.

The operative teams were very much aware of the CCTV in Dubai,but they have been astonished at the ability of the Dubai police to reconstruct and assemble all the images into one account, an unnamed Israeli source was quoted by the paper as saying.

Israels Deputy Foreign Minister,Danny Ayalon,on Saturday said that he does not expect relations between Israel and European countries whose passports were used in the assassination to deteriorate as a result of the incident. I do not expect a crisis in relations because there is nothing linking Israel to the assassination. Britain,France and Germany are countries with shared interests with Israel in countering terrorism, Ayalon said,naming three of the four countries whose passports were used. At least three of the suspects are said to have used Irish passports.