Mossad’s Palestinian target missions widen in Malaysia

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Despite widespread criticism of its operations, the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, continues to conduct missions abroad targeting Palestinian individuals, with six identified in Malaysia, according to a local daily.

In the latest case, however, one such operation in Malaysia failed when the local authorities rushed to rescue a Palestinian abducted by alleged Mossad operatives in the Southeast Asian Muslim-majority country.

But the Malaysian daily New Straits Times warned on Wednesday that Mossad “with tentacles in the country may strike again at their targets at the next available opportunity.”

It comes after the daily exposed how Mossad “struck again,” this time “recruiting and using its local assets to hunt down two high-value Palestinian targets and succeeded in abducting one of them from the streets” in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 28.

The unnamed Palestinian victim was a computer programmer from Gaza. He was forced into a car and driven to the outskirts of the capital for interrogation.

“The covert operation, however, swiftly went south, as police swung into action and raided their ‘safe house’ in Hulu Langat, all within 24 hours,” the report said.

Malaysian police rescued the victim, who was being “interrogated by two Israeli men via a video call.”

The victim was beaten and tortured by Mossad’s assets in Malaysia, who were involved in the operation.

After the revelation, Malaysian police summoned the daily’s Group Editor Farrah Naz Karim to the Dang Wangi police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. There are no additional details available about the summons.

“This mission of alleged extrajudicial elimination of certain targets, which Middle Eastern intelligence officials had said was part of a broader operation spearheaded by the Israeli national intelligence agency Mossad, is supposedly aimed at dismantling a Hamas program of sending Palestine's most promising scientists and engineers abroad,” the daily claimed.

At least six Palestinians living in Malaysia are on Mossad’s target list, it said, adding, “Several of them are members of academia at local universities, lecturing in professional disciplines, including engineering.”

The latest anti-Palestinian move comes after Mossad allegedly launched a pre-dawn attack in the Gombak area of the capital in April 2018.

It killed Fadi Mohamed al-Batsh, 35, when he was walking towards a mosque for Fajr or pre-dawn Muslim prayers.

The slain was a Palestinian research engineer who taught at University Kuala Lumpur British Malaysian Institute.