Manama: A Palestinian former security leader has denied reports that he was connected with the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month.
“I have no connection whatsoever with the assassination of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh,” Mohammad Dahlan said. “All the evidence and proofs gathered by the Dubai police indicate the involvement of Israel’s Mossad in the assassination,” Dahlan told Kuwaiti daily Al Jareeda.
Dahlan accused Israel of seeking to divert attention away by disseminating and leaking misleading information accusing Palestinian figures of being involved in the crime.
“Regretfully, Hamas is not focusing on the real criminal and is following mirages created by Israel,” he said in the phone interview published on Friday.
Hamas and its nemesis Fatah, the two main Palestinians factions, have now been trading accusations of facilitating the killing of Al Mabhouh.
Media reports claimed that the two Palestinians currently in Dubai police custody had collaborated with the hit-squad that killed Al Mabhouh and that they worked for a real estate owned by Dahlan.
However, the former security head said that he did not know the two Palestinians arrested in Jordan and currently held by Dubai police for interrogation.
“I have never seen either of them and I am not familiar with them. I have left my position as head of the security in Gaza in 2002,” he said.
