Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that after a long silence that lasted since the publication of the facts in the Malaysian News Agency, an Israeli political Source agreed to admit that the Kuala Lumpur police managed to abort the kidnapping of a Palestinian computer scientist carried out by agents of the Israeli entity, and considered it one of the major failed operations of the Mossad. Especially since a previous kidnapping operation failed by the Mossad, also in Malaysia and against a Palestinian scientist in 2018.
In this context, Barak Rafid, the political editor of the Hebrew Walla website, stated, according to what the newspaper reported, that if the news was true, the Mossad would deal a huge blow.
Rafid confirmed that “Mossad officials refuse to comment on the failed operation in Malaysia.” While the Israeli expert in intelligence affairs, Yossi Melman (Haaretz newspaper), said that there is an imbalance in the Mossad’s activity in Malaysia, and this is the result of “outsourcing” and abandoning “the efforts of the Israelis” in destinations where there is danger.
Melman added: “According to the publications, the Mossad recruited a local cell composed of Malaysian citizens to carry out operations against Hamas experts, and the mission failed.” As for the “Israel Hayom” newspaper, it said: “It seems that the meeting held by Prime Minister Yair Lapid with the participation of Defense Minister Benny Gantz and other senior officials did not address the issue of (the Lions’ Den) in Nablus, but rather discussed the failed operation of the Mossad in Malaysia.
The Malaysian news website, New Strait Times, reported on Monday that the kidnapping took place at 10 pm on September 28. He recounted the story, saying: “Two Palestinians specializing in electronic programming and technology systems, one of them an engineer, were on their way to get into their car after they had dinner in a shopping center in the center of Kuala Lumpur. A white vehicle drove towards them and 4 people got off. His face (our president wants to talk to you), the other Palestinian tried to help his friend but was warned to stay away from the scene.”
According to the Malaysian website, when the second Palestinian realized that the kidnappers were working for the Israeli Mossad, he ran to a nearby hotel to seek help from the staff after the vehicle that kidnapped his colleague quickly fled the scene, and filed a report with the police 40 minutes after the incident. The website pointed out that in 2018, the Mossad recruited a Malaysian woman in her mid-thirties to head the kidnappers squad, the same year that the Hamas activist Mohammed al-Batsh was assassinated in Malaysia. And he indicated that the Malaysian woman, who headed the kidnapper squad, formed an intelligence team that was monitoring Palestinians and was receiving about 2,000 euros a month from the Mossad.
The website added that the Malaysian intelligence is not currently interested in revealing the identity of the kidnapped, and said that the kidnappers had mistaken the address and were intending to kidnap the young man who had freed him and kidnapped his friend in his place. They arrived at a house in a rural house on the outskirts of the capital and immediately began communicating with a certain party in Tel Aviv, apparently a team of Mossad investigators, and began interrogating the kidnapped. Meanwhile, the police forces in Malaysia were able within 24 hours to reach the kidnappers’ location, arrest them, and free the activist. The website confirmed that the Mossad interrogated the Palestinian activist about his association with the Al-Qassam Brigades, and indicated that the Malaysian agents involved in the kidnapping of the Palestinian activist had received training from Mossad agents in European countries.
Malaysian media also revealed that the security services had dismantled a spy network affiliated with the Israeli Mossad, and quoted officials as saying that the Mossad had recruited a cell of at least 11 Malaysians with the aim of tracking Palestinian activists, as well as for the purpose of spying on important sites in the country, including airports, as well as penetrating companies government electronic. These sources did not rule out the presence of other active Mossad cells in the country.
About a week ago, the Malaysian police had published a video of the storming of a house where a kidnapping gang had holed up. In their statements, the police did not refer to Israeli spying operations and the identity of the targets.
It is known that two gunmen had assassinated the Palestinian engineer, Fadi Al-Batsh, who holds a doctorate in electronic engineering, for the benefit of the Mossad in Malaysia in 2018. According to the city police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazem, Al-Batsh was on his way to a mosque next to his residence in the Gombak area north of the capital when the attackers shot him. At the time, the police chief indicated that the two attackers targeted Al-Batsh with 10 bullets, 4 of which hit him, killing him instantly, noting that investigations are still ongoing in the case.
At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of the Interior, run by the “Hamas” movement in Gaza, revealed the arrest of someone involved in the Al-Batsh assassination. Ministry spokesman, Iyad al-Buzum, said at the time that through the ongoing investigations by the Internal Security Agency, “the confessions of one of the detainees indicate his involvement, commissioned by the Israeli Mossad, to participate in the assassination of the martyr al-Batsh.” According to reports, a Palestinian from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip who participated in the assassination of al-Batsh was arrested after his return to Gaza. A few days ago, a specialized court in the Gaza Strip issued a death sentence.
Dr. Fadi Al-Batsh (35 years old) was working as a lecturer at a private Malaysian university. He was originally from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip, married and had three children. He is a scientist specializing in electrical engineering, and has received a number of scientific awards, most notably the Malaysian “Khazana” award in 2016 as the first Arab to be crowned. He also received several patents for his development of electronic devices and metals to generate electricity.
Tags: Revealing details failed Israeli Mossad operation Malaysia .. Agents freed target kidnapped friend
