Egypt to return body of Palestinian killed in Malaysia

Egyptian authorities have officially agreed to repatriate the body of the Palestinian engineer, Fadi Al-Batsh, who was killed on Saturday in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lampur, to the Gaza Strip for burial, the Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia announced yesterday.

Anwar Al-Agha said Al-Batsh’s body will be returned to Gaza through the Egyptian border. “The Palestinian embassy in Malaysia has received documents signed by the Egyptian side authorising the transfer of the martyr’s [Al-Batch] body to Gaza via the Rafah crossing,” he explained.

READ: Israel asked Egypt to prevent body of slain Palestinian returning to Gaza

“The Palestinian authorities are communicating with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which will be the body’s first transit, in order to speed up the procedures and finalise the required documents,” Anwar Al-Agha noted.

Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman had appealed to Egypt to refuse the Palestinian request. The body is expected to arrive in Egypt later this evening and in Gaza tomorrow.

Prayers were held for Al-Batsh before his body departed Malaysia yesterday/today.

The coffin of Palestinian Fadi al-Batsh is carried out of a mosque after a prayer in Selayang, a neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur on 25 April, 2018 [Alexandra Radu/Anadolu Agency]

Friends and supporters of Palestinian Fadi al-Batsh participate at a prayer in Selayang, a neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur on 25 April, 2018 [Alexandra Radu/Anadolu Agency]

Friends and supporters of Palestinian Fadi al-Batsh participate at a prayer in Selayang, a neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur on 25 April, 2018 [Alexandra Radu/Anadolu Agency]

Al-Batsh was shot while walking to a mosque near his home in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. The Malaysian police chief, Mohamed Fawzi, announced yesterday that they had found the motorcycle which they suspect was used in the attack “two kilometres from the location of the crime”.

Malaysian Interior Minister, Ahmed Zahid Hamidi, was quoted earlier by reporters in a press conference as saying that the perpetrators “were foreign agents of a Middle Eastern state that carries out secret missions in many countries to protect its interests.” He did not specify the country.

“The perpetrators had entered Kuala Lampur with foreign passports of countries with diplomatic relations with Malaysia, making it difficult to track,” Hamidi noted.

“Among the foreign countries, Middle Eastern ones that would do anything to destroy the capabilities of the Palestinian people,” he added, hinting at Israel’s involvement in the attack.

The Palestinian researcher, who had moved to Malaysia ten years ago with his wife and three children, was reported by Israeli media to have been an engineer in Hamas and an expert in unmanned aerial vehicles.

READ: Malaysia issues sketches of Al-Batsh’s killers