Lebanese Interior Minister and two other high-ranking officials claimed on Monday that the Mossad was involved in the murder of Mohammed Surour who was implicated in the transfer of funds from Iran to the Hamas terror group.
Surour, who was on the U.S. sanctions list, was discovered last week in a villa in a town near Beirut, his body riddled with seven bullet wounds. Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in a television interview, that the crime was likely committed by intelligence services, but when asked specifically if it was the Mossad, he said yes. "The finger is pointed at the Mossad but we are monitoring the investigation," he said.
A Lebanese security source said Surour worked for Hezbollah's financial institutions. In August 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on him and several others for their role in facilitating the transfer of money from Iran and providing support to the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
A senior official in the Lebanese judicial system, speaking to the French news agency (AFP), said that all evidence points to Mossad being behind the assassination, although the investigation is still in its early stages. A security source revealed to AFP that Mossad likely used agents from Lebanon and Syria to lure Surour to the villa in Beit Meri, where he was ambushed and killed. The perpetrators reportedly used silenced firearms and left no fingerprints at the crime scene.
Surour had been missing for six days before his body was found, according to his family. Following the discovery of the body, reports emerged that a sum of money was found nearby, which was not taken by the assassins. One report in the Lebanese "Al-Akhbar" suggested that Israel had previously interrogated detainees from the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority to gather information about Surour and his activities, after it was revealed that his shop was used to transfer money to Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.
The Lebanese newspaper reported that the firearms used in Surour's murder were found in the house's kitchen. The report suggested that the weapons were immersed in water and cleaning materials to remove any fingerprints.