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- Mossad allegedly abducts Palestinian man in Malaysia - report
Mossad allegedly abducts Palestinian man in Malaysia - report
Alleged Israeli agents arrested after abducted Palestinian freed by police
Israel's Mossad security service agents allegedly recruited Malaysians to target Hamas members, according to reports in the country on Monday.
The New Strait Times, a Malaysian English-language news outlet, said that on the night of September 28, four Israeli agents stopped two Palestinian men suspected of being members of Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital.
While returning to their car after eating dinner, one of the men was reportedly beaten and taken away in another vehicle, while the second was warned to stay away.
The second Palestinian alerted security at a nearby hotel, and filed a report at a local police station some 40 minutes after the incident.
Both men, computer programming experts, are from the Gaza Strip.
According to a source cited by the New Strait Times, the operatives bungled the mission, as the second Palestinian was the more prized target. They also did not cover their faces.
The abducted man was questioned by the alleged agents, who reportedly put him on a phone call with an Israeli who asked him about Hamas’ software development capabilities.
He was held for 24 hours until Malaysian police came and raided the site, freeing him as he was being interrogated, and arrested his abductors.
Both Palestinians have since left Malaysia.
Malaysia has no diplomatic ties with Israel, while many in the country actively support the Palestinian cause.
Israel allegedly carried out a targeted killing of a Hamas member in 2018, engineer Dr. Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, although Israel denies this.