Slain Hamas member's family trying to bring him back to Gaza for burial
Amid objections in Israel, family of assassinated Palestinian electrical engineer Fadi Albatsh is working with Malaysian and Egyptian authorities to bring his body back to Jabalia for burial; Bennett says it cannot be allowed while IDF soldiers Goldin, Shaul are not returned to Israel for burial.
The family of Palestinian electrical engineer Fadi Albatsh, a Hamas member who was assassinated in Malaysia on Saturday, has been trying to bring his body back to the Gaza Strip for burial amid objections from Israel.
"His father contacted us and expressed his hope to bury him in his hometown, Jabalia," said Dr. Mahmoud Shakfa, the general manager of the International Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IESCO), where Albatsh taught.
"His family members—father, mother, and siblings—have not seen him for the past seven years. Upon the family members' request, the embassies of Palestine and Egypt in Malaysia are arranging and coordinating to facilitate the procedure, it may take two to three days," he told the New Straight Times.
"Don’t deny the right of the family members to see Fadi for the last time," he said.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim said Sunday that an autopsy was being carried out at a hospital after which the body would be released to the family.
"We are investigating all angles. I have to investigate very carefully and deeply. This is an international issue," Mazlan said.
Preparations were being made to bury Albatsh at the Batu Muda Muslim Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, but the plan has been put on hold in light of the family's wishes.
In Israel, the Goldin family, whose son Lt. Hadar Goldin was killed in Gaza and captured by Hamas, demanded the government not to allow the return of Albatsh's body to Gaza for burial.
The family turned to POW and MIA coordinator Yaron Blum, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and the Prime Minister's Military Secretary Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, arguing that as long as Hamas was holding Lt. Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul's bodies, as well as two living Israeli civilians, it cannot be allowed to bring Albatsh's body back to the strip.
The family noted that the mourners' tent set up in Gaza shows Hamas wishes to hold a large, public funeral for Albatsh.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett echoed the family's sentiments, writing on Twitter: "We must not allow for a member of Hamas's military wing, Fadi Albatsh, who was killed in Malaysia, to be brought to Gaza for burial, before the release of the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, so they could be brought for burial in Israel. I'll raise this demand with the prime minister."
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman shrugged off accusations that the Israeli Mossad was behind Albatsh's assassination.
"They always attribute to us. In the same way, you could put it on James Bond," he told Army Radio on Sunday morning. "If Hamas wants to deal with this, let them. We have no interest in dealing with this issue."
When asked about the demand from Bennett and the Goldin family, the defense minister said that "They are mostly probably turning to the media, not to the prime minister and not to me. There's a procedure, we don't allow bodies of Hamas terrorists into the Gaza Strip, and this was approved by the attorney general and stands the test of the High Court of Justice."
"What is relevant is that if they tried to bring the body in through Egypt and the Rafah crossing, we don't really have control over this, even though we already made our position known last night through the relevant channels," he added.
According to reports in Malaysia, the 35-year-old Albatsh was shot to death at around 6am by two assailants on a motorbike while he was on his way to his home in the Jalan Gombak neighborhood to a nearby mosque for dawn prayers.
The assassins shot 10 rounds at him before fleeing the scene. Local police said the assassins waited for Albatsh for 20 minutes until he arrived at the scene.
A Palestinian official who knows the family said the slain electrical engineer was a member of Hamas's military wing. "His importance in the military wing was not any less than that of Mohammad al-Zawahri," a Hamas drone engineer who was assassinated in Tunisia, he said.
Albatsh's father Mohammad told Ynet Saturday night that the Mossad was behind his son's assassination and disavowed any links he may have had with Hamas.
The father's statement ran contrary to an official statement put out by Hamas, which claimed him as one of their own members.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told The Associated Press Saturday that based on previous assassinations "Mossad is not away from this disgraceful, terrible crime."
"There will be an unsettled account between us and it," Haniyeh said at the Gaza mourning tent, referring to Mossad. "We cannot give up on the blood of our sons, youths and scholars."
The deceased's father, meanwhile, insisted that his son "did not belong to any of the Palestinian factions—neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad. His academic success (in electrical engineering), his studies and the international conferences he attended—all were things that may have motivated the Mossad to assassinate him."
AFP contributed to this report.
