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Hamas supports prosecution of Abu-Jihad's assassins

February 17, 2014 at 11:19 pm

A member of the Islamic Resistance Movement’s political bureau has expressed support for the prosecution of the Israelis who killed Khalil Al-Wazeer, alias Abu Jihad. Senior Hamas official Izzat Risheq used his Facebook page to call on human rights organisations to “raise this issue” along with the prosecution of all suspected Israeli war criminals.

Abu Jihad co-founded and was the second in command of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). He was assassinated in Tunis in 1988 and the PLO accused Israel’s Mossad espionage agency of the killing.


It was only last week that the Israeli military censor authorised the publication of the testimony of the Israeli army officer who said that he killed the PLO man.

Nahum Lev, the commander of the operational team which carried out the assassination, told a reporter for Yedioth Ahronoth before his death in a car accident in 2000 that he had pulled the trigger. The Israeli newspaper published a photograph, testimony and information about the officer last Thursday.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the Tunisian Wafaa Movement filed a lawsuit on Monday against Israel after it had formally acknowledged responsibility for the assassination of Abu Jihad on Tunisian territory. According to Salim Bokhtheer of Wafaa, the lawyers thus have clear evidence against Israel and will be pursuing the action under the International Convention on Political Assassination, which is ratified by both Tunisia and Israel. The convention was adopted in order to track down Nazis responsible for the Holocaust.

According to Bokhtheer, deposed Tunisian president Ben Ali was complicit in the assassination. “A lot of documents proving this were hidden or destroyed by previous governments,” he said.