Assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a co-founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of Hamas), was found dead in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai on 20 January 2010, a day after checking in. He had been wanted by the Israeli government in connection with the 1989 kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers and for allegedly purchasing arms from Iran for use in Gaza; these have been cited as a possible motive for his killing.

According to the Dubai Police investigation, al-Mabhouh flew from Damascus to Dubai on 19 January 2010 and checked into a room with sealed windows and no balcony. He left the hotel for several hours before returning around 20:24, and was believed dead by around 21:00 that night. Hotel surveillance footage showed a team of suspects tracking him and coordinating his room location before entering. Investigators said the electronic door lock may have been reprogrammed to allow entry. A bottle of medicine was left by the bed to suggest a natural death, and it took Dubai police roughly ten days to determine that he had been assassinated rather than died naturally. Forensic findings described by Dubai's deputy police commander indicated al-Mabhouh was injected in the leg with succinylcholine, a fast-acting paralytic, and then suffocated.

Dubai identified at least 26 to 29 suspects who had entered the country using forged or fraudulently obtained passports from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia, most reportedly using stolen identities of real people, largely Israeli dual nationals. Photographs and aliases of the suspects were placed on Interpol's most-wanted list. Two Palestinians, described by Hamas as former Fatah security officers, were arrested in Jordan and handed to Dubai on suspicion of providing logistical assistance, such as arranging car rentals and hotel bookings; Hamas said the men worked for a senior Fatah official, a claim Fatah and Mohammed Dahlan denied.

Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, stated he was "99% certain," and later "completely sure," that Mossad carried out the killing, and said he sought an arrest warrant for Mossad chief Meir Dagan and, later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United Kingdom expelled an Israeli diplomat after its Serious Organised Crime Agency concluded Israel had forged British passports; Australia and Ireland took similar diplomatic action after their own investigations. Israel has not officially confirmed or denied responsibility. A German-Israeli suspect, identified by aliases including Uri Brodsky/Alexander Verin, was arrested in Poland in June 2010 on a German warrant related to fraudulently obtaining a German passport for another suspect, and was later extradited to Germany, released on bail, and returned to Israel; a German warrant on separate espionage allegations reportedly remained in effect. No one has been publicly tried or convicted for the killing itself.