THE hit squad that assassinated a Hamas chief in a luxury hotel in Dubia are hiding in Israel to avoid arrest, Dubai's police chief claims.Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a founder of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, was found dead in his hotel room on January 20.
He had been drugged and then suffocated.
"I say (the suspects) are in Israel. Israel says they are in Israel," Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan told reporters. "If they stay in Israel, they won't be arrested.
"Eventually they will leave, and then, they can be arrested," he added, referring to a list of suspects passed on to Interpol.
Dubai police have released the names and passport pictures of 26 people whom they suspect of the murder, including three Australians.
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It is believed that the assassins stole their identities.
Police say the killers fled the southern Gulf emirate on flights to Europe and Asia and are convinced the Israeli spy agency Mossad carried out the Cold War-style hit.
Lieutenant General Khalfan also called on Israel to fight its conflicts on its own soil. "When (Israel) has a conflict, let it wage the war on its own land, not on our land," he said.
In a newspaper report published yesterday, Lieutenant General Khalfan said that a 27th suspect had been identified, also travelling on an European passport but this time unspecified.
The investigation has caused a diplomatic headache for the Jewish state in which the five Western countries whose passports were used have all called in Israeli envoys to hear protests.
Lieutenant General Khalfan said the suspects would not have dared used US passports. "I think Israel was scared of provoking a clash with the United States which it considers its best friend," he said.
Israel itself has sought to play down the row, saying there is no hard proof of its involvement. Officials have refused to confirm or deny the reports, although Israeli media see the killing as the work of Mossad.
Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom said Western intelligence services also targeted "terrorists who threaten their countries," stressing that he was not commenting on the Mabhuh case.
"No terrorist can claim the least immunity ... All those among the terrorists who conceive, execute and recruit must be pursued," he said.
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