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Dubai, UAE -- A shadowy figure murdered in his Dubai hotel room by a hit squad that the police say operated with European passports. It sounds like the plot of a John Le Carré spy novel, but this is reality and the hunt is on for the killers of top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh...al-Mabhouh landed at Dubai International airport on January 19. Then, a short drive to his hotel, the al Bustan Rotana, where just hours later he would be killed. Dubai police say he was not traveling under his real name, so the hotel staff would have been unaware...

The arrest of two Palestinians suspected of being involved in the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai, as well as the publication of video clips depicting the assassins, has reignited the finger pointing between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas claimed Tuesday that the two arrested men, who served in the Palestinian security forces, are proof that the Palestinian Authority played a role in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 20. The PA denied the allegations. "If they want, Hamas can reveal the identity of the suspects," challenged the PA. Police in the United Arab Emirates announced Monday at...

Group of pictures published on Dubai Police yesterday for 11 people suspected of involvement in the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Mabhouh last month (a. P. B) and Dahi Khalfan Tamim, displays photographs of the suspects yesterday. Dubai Police revealed yesterday for clues in the case of the assassination of leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Mahmoud Abdel-Raouf, Mohamed Hassan, better known as the husky-Mahmoud, said that it ends all aspects of the mystery which drew the process since the disaster, and highlighted this information nationalities of the suspects in the process The names and photographs and method of...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Dubai's police chief said Monday an 11-member hit squad with European passports was responsible for killing a Hamas commander in his hotel room last month, but he did not directly implicate Israel as the Islamic militant group has. The Gulf emirate released photos, names, nationalities and passport numbers of all 11 suspects. The details given by Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim are the most comprehensive accusations by Dubai authorities since the body of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found Jan. 20 in his luxury hotel room near Dubai's international airport. Tamim said it was possible that...

Dubai will issue arrest warrants soon for 11 Europeans suspected in the killing of senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, but its police chief said Monday that he was still not ruling out Israeli involvement. "We do not rule out Mossad, but when we arrest those suspects we will know who masterminded it. [We have not] issued arrest warrants yet, but will do soon," police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim told reporters. Dubai Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim told reporters that the alleged assassination team comprised six British passport holders, three Irish and one each from France and Germany.

The Beautiful 'Assassin': 'Hit Squad With British Passports Accused Of Executing Senior Hamas Leader [Pics in URL] 15th February 2010 Claims that British and Irish passport holders are among an alleged 11-man hit squad wanted in Dubai for the apparent assassination of a Hamas commander are tonight being investigated by London and Dublin. Dubai police say the main suspect is Peter Elvinger, 49, who holds a French passport. He was the gang’s logistical co-ordinator and the one who booked room 237 in Al Bustan Rotana, down the corridor from the victim’s room – 230. The other suspects were identified as...

The Dubai police has published a video showing alledged intelligence agents operating in a Dubai hotel last January 19, 2010, and suspected of having killed Hamas high-ranking figure Mahmud al-Mabuh.

The three Irish citizens who the Dubai authorities allege helped to assassinate a Hamas official do not exist, according to Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs. The Irish government says the trio of alleged passport-holders identified on Monday in Dubai as Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron do not appear in Ireland's records of legitimate passport-holders. "We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens. Ireland has issued no passports in those names," the department said in a statement to The Associated Press. -snip-

Israel has been placed on alert for the prospect of widespread Palestinian violence throughout the West Bank. Officials said Israel's military, police and intelligence services were ordered on high alert after the military has assessed that the ruling Fatah movement, in cooperation with elements within the Palestinian Authority, were organizing civil unrest as well as ambushes on Israeli soldiers and civilians. Officials said PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been pressed by senior members of Fatah to approve what was termed a "third intifada," or uprising. "Abbas doesn't have to actually approve anything," the official said. "He just has to remain...

Palestinian Authority (PA) court has sentenced a 28-year-old PA policeman to death for allegedly spying for Israel, and the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel thinks the United States envoy to the Middle East should be aware of this human rights violation. The convict, a resident of the El Aroub neighborhood, was found guilty of assisting the IDF in the elimination of a terrorist in 2002, during the siege of the Church of Nativity. The convict served in the Presidential Guard in Bethlehem at the time. In addition, he allegedly assisted the IDF to arrest other terrorists. In an...

The incoming Obama administration will not abandon US President George W. Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas, the chief national security spokesperson of the Obama transition team has told The Jerusalem Post. The next US president will not break the policy of isolating Hamas, an Obama spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post. US President-elect Barack Obama "has repeatedly stated that he believes that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to Israel's destruction, and that we should not deal with them until they recognize Israel, renounce violence, and abide by past agreements," said Brooke Anderson in a statement to the Post.

The Palestinian Authority president urged both Israel and Hamas to agree to an Egypt-brokered truce Saturday, but he singled out the Jewish state, saying it would be responsible for a "waterfall of blood" if it didn't accept the deal. Mahmoud Abbas is in Cairo Saturday for talks with Egyptian officials on a truce to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip, now in its 15th day. In a news conference Saturday in Cairo after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Mahmoud Abbas also stressed that there was no time to waste in ending the bloodshed in Gaza, home to 1.4...

Nizar Rayyan, the Hamas military commander who was killed in Thursday's air raid on his home in the Jabalya refugee camp, was a sworn enemy not only of Israel, but also of the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas. Rayyan, who had four wives and a dozen children, led the Hamas militiamen who defeated Abbas's security forces in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007. He is the third most senior Hamas leader to be killed by Israel, after the targeted killings of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March 2004 and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a...

JAFFA, Israel – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his office today slammed as "barbaric" and "unnecessary" Israel's air strikes in Gaza, but according to top diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, Abbas for months now has been petitioning Israel to launch a massive military raid against his Hamas rivals in Gaza. The sources, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity, said Abbas and his top representatives have waged a quiet campaign for months asking the Israeli government to target Hamas in Gaza just before his term in office is scheduled to expire on Jan. 9. Hamas leaders have repeatedly warned they...

In both the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas-ruled territory of Gaza there are carefully planned widespread campaigns of incitement of children. These lead to Palestinian children aspiring to be involved in terrorist actions. The following interview with the psychiatrist and pathologist Dr. Daphne Burdman examines the strongly held cultural beliefs that engender this incitement. Burdman was assistant clinical professor of pathology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. army MG: Can you tell us briefly how the process of incitement works? DB: In both the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas-ruled...

Lavishing funds on Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to achieve peace has been a mainstay of Western, including Israeli, policy since Hamas seized Gaza in June. But this open spigot has counterproductive results and urgently must be stopped. Some background: Paul Morro of the Congressional Research Service reports that, in 2006, the European Union and its member states gave US$815 million to the Palestinian Authority, while the United States sent it $468 million. When other donors are included, the total receipts come to about $1.5 billion. The windfall keeps growing. President George W. Bush requested a $410 million supplement...

(IsraelNN.com) Muslim fundamentalists, aligned with Al Qaeda, bombed a Christian bookstore and two Internet cafes in Gaza on Saturday following previous attacks on churches as part of its religious crusade to replace the secular Fatah faction. The "Sword of Islam" terrorist group took responsibility for the bombings of Internet cafes and music stores, which they consider an offense to the Muslim religion because they represent Western society. The same group has issued warnings to Gaza women not to hang out in Internet cafes. The Swords of Islam has bombed more than a dozen Internet cafes in several weeks and destroyed...

Available data suggest that genetic and congenital disorders are more common in Arab countries than in industrialised countries; recessively inherited disorders account for a substantial proportion of physical and mental handicap. Several factors may contribute to the high prevalence of genetically determined disorders: High consanguinity rates 25-60% of all marriages are consanguineous, and the rate of first cousin marriages is high. In addition, isolated subpopulations with a high level of inbreeding exist. Furthermore, in many parts of the Arab world the society is still tribal. This has made the epidemiology of genetic disorders complicated, as many families and tribal groups...

Israel Defense Forces tank shells struck houses in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, killing at least 18 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others. According to witnesses, the 18 victims, most of them women and children, died in their sleep. Khaled Radi, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said all the dead were civilians. He said seven children and four women were among the dead. Radi also said a least 40 more were wounded, all civilians. Four hospitals are treating the wounded across Gaza. The Israeli military said it was not immediately aware of any shells being fired in the area....

Enraged by the failure of the Arab countries to help Hizbullah and Hamas in their confrontation with Israel, one of the major Palestinian militias announced on Tuesday that it had recruited dozens of women to join the fight against Israel. Dressed in military fatigue and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov rifles, the women were sent to march in the streets of Gaza City, chanting slogans in support of Hizbullah and Hamas and calling on all Arabs and Muslims to launch a war against Israel. Some of the women fired into the air as they passed near the offices of...