Fadi al-Batsh, the electrical engineer and Hamas operative from the Gaza Strip who was assassinated last Saturday in Kuala Lumpur, was supposed to have left Malaysia for Turkey – which hosts Hamas offices and operatives – the next day.
Al-Batsh, who according to intelligence reports was involved in developing rockets and drones for Hamas, had been in touch with the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey as well as with his cousin Dr. Khaled al-Batsh, a senior member of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. According to al-Batsh's relatives, his planned trip to Turkey was for solely academic and scientific purposes.
Another Hamas member, Mohammad a-Zawahri – an aeronautical engineer who specialized in developing unmanned aircraft for his organization as well as Hezbollah – was assassinated in Tunisia in December 2016. Zawahri, a supporter of the Islamist movement Al-Nadha, was also in contact with the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey, and according to reports from Arab sources had returned from Turkey a mere five days before he was killed.
This week, as in 2016, foreign sources attributed the killing to the Mossad. Then, like now, Israel has chosen to keep quiet and adopted a policy of ambiguity.
The story of Wasim Qawasmeh, a resident of Hebron, and another unnamed Hamas operative from Khan Younis in Gaza, provides more evidence of Hamas terrorist activity on the Turkey-Malaysia axis, with one key difference: In these two cases, Israel's involvement was unambiguous. In fact, the opposite: Qawasmeh, who was recruited into Hamas as a student at the International Islamic University Malaysia, was arrested, indicted, convicted (under a plea bargain) and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Khan Younis Hamas man, whom Israel captured during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, had been sent to Malaysia with a group of fellow Gazans at around the same time to be trained to operate paragliders for use in terrorist attacks against Israel.
The original indictment against Qawasmeh, along with information from his interrogation, showed how Hamas was conducting extensive cultural and social activity among students at the government-run university, and how Palestinian students and lecturers took part in conferences organized and led by Hamas.
In Qawasmeh's case, as well as others that were not reported, this social and cultural work at the university also included secret activity and efforts to recruit new members for Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. The fresh recruits would later be sent to Turkey for a training course. They were supplied with money and returned to Judea and Samaria to get down to work.
The Shin Bet security agency reports that by April 2015, this method had successfully recruited some 40 Palestinian students to Izzedine al-Qassam. In the past three years, efforts have been made to recruit dozens more.
During his interrogation, Qawasmeh confirmed that he had sworn allegiance to Hamas while still in Malaysia and that during his training in Turkey had heard lectures by Hamas operatives, including then-head of Hamas abroad Mohammad Nazzal. According to information from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, at least two lecturers from universities in Malaysia took part in Qawasmeh's swearing-in ceremony in Malaysia: Dr. Ma'an Khatib (in charge of Malaysia for Hamas) and Dr. Radwan al-Atrash. In the winter of 2013, Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal also visited the university where Qawasmeh was a student.
Al-Batsh, who was shot to death last Saturday by two motorcyclists while on his way to pray at a mosque near his house, worked and lectured under the auspices of a different Malaysian university, the British Malaysian Institute at the University of Kuala Lumpur. A devout Muslim and the imam of Al-Abbas Mosque as well as a scientist, al-Batsh supplemented his academic activity with social and cultural work for Hamas. The organization itself left no doubt about his identity. After al-Batsh – a native of Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip – was killed, it recognized him as a contributing member of Hamas. Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the engineer had been a member of "Palestinian organizations."
Hamas' Turkey-Malaysia axis, as well as Turkey's increasingly close ties to Hamas, disturbs Israeli defense officials.
'Many more surprises to come'
Turkey and Malaysia are bound by the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's own. Mashaal, who since being ousted as leader of Hamas has been busy strengthening the ties between his organization, Turkey, and Qatar, is a close friend of Erdogan's. Mashaal recently expressed pride about Hamas in Gaza's new campaign of "return," which has sparked violent protests at the border fence that have resulted in the deaths of at least 35 Palestinians. He declared that the campaign "surprised the Israeli occupation with something new," and that Hamas has "a lot more surprises" up its sleeve.
The link between Malaysia and Turkey was apparent as early as the infamous Mami Marmara flotilla to Gaza of 2010. Twenty-one pro-Palestinian activists were on board the Marmara, and another six were on the Rachel Corrie, which was also part of the flotilla. In 2013, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak visited the Gaza Strip, accompanied by some of his ministers, and was received by then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. During the visit, Razak was taken to see the car of Ahmed al-Jabari, the former head of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, who was killed by the IDF in November 2012.
Malaysia, incidentally, denied then and denies that it is involved in or abets terrorism. It also denies any ties to Hamas' military wing or involvement in the recruitment of Palestinian students studying there. The official line of Malaysia, most of whose citizens are Muslim and which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, is that it supports the Palestinian cause on a moral level through humanitarian aid and that it has a history of good relations with Palestinian leaders.
In January, Hamas itself provided more proof of its unceasing efforts to recruit scientists. Hamas said in a statement that the Mossad had lured Iraqi scientist Taher Mahmoud al-Jabouri, who admitted he had helped Hamas improve its rocket-launching capabilities in Gaza, to the Philippines. Hamas claimed that a European-Asian company, which turned out to be a fictitious business entity operated by the Mossad, had invited Jabouri to Manila, where Mossad agents abducted and interrogated him.
Eventually, the Philippines police brought Jabouri to trial. He was deported to Turkey, where he had previously worked as a military consultant for Hamas. Turkey extradited him to Iraq under the claim that his visa had run out.
From tunnels to drones
Wherever it is based, Hamas is determined to rope in the latest technological advancements for its military purposes. In 2009, Syria and Iran helped the group smuggle various models of small aircraft into Gaza via tunnels beneath the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt. Three years later, on Nov. 16, 2012, while Operation Pillar of Defense was underway, the Israeli Air Force struck a harsh blow to Hamas' development and manufacture of attack UAVs. Israel reported that it had targeted and destroyed a warehouse full of UAVs that were in advanced development and would have had been capable of carrying out precision strikes as well as collecting high-quality intelligence.
During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the IDF arrested a Hamas operative near Khan Younis who belonged to a special unit in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. The information he supplied supported intelligence Israeli security forces already had about Hamas' aeronautic operations. The operative said he was one of a group of about 15 Hamas members who had been sent to Malaysia for training on how to use paragliders to execute terrorist attacks against Israel.
Around the same time, the Israeli Air Force intercepted a Hamas UAV that had crossed the border. Similar incidents occurred in June 2015 and September 2016. In February 2017, the IAF shot down a Hamas drone launched from Gaza over the Mediterranean Sea. The drone had been launched as a trial by members of the organization's military wing.
In the past few years, Hamas has not been content with UAVs and has added multirotor drones to its weapons chest. Hamas members have been spotted at international expos of drones and other small aircraft. Israel is certain that this is no hobby and that Hamas is actively trying to recruit academics and students in Indonesia who can help it improve its air attack capabilities.
Hamas turned toward the use of UAVs to spy, carry out terrorist attacks, or simply crash in Israel with a load of explosives as its attempts to strike Israel from below via its network of tunnels failed. The more Israel exposes and destroys terror tunnels and the further it progresses on the enormous concrete barrier equipped with motion sensors it is constructing along the entire length of the Gaza border, the more Hamas is being forced to seek alternative methods and reinvent itself.
Now Hamas, inspired by Iran and aided by Turkey, has taken up the campaign of "return" and protest marches along the fence, which have kept both Israel and the international community busy in recent weeks. The man behind the campaign is the head of Iran's Al-Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who is responsible for Revolutionary Guard activity beyond the border of Iran. When the protests began, they were notable for the presence of foreign pro-Hamas NGOs, but now Hamas is no longer hiding behind these groups and is taking responsibility for what is happening along the border.
The way Hamas sees it, the masses who gather on the Gaza border have managed to put Gaza back on the international agenda, give the Palestinian struggle a "populist" tinge, portray Hamas – rather than the Palestinian Authority – as the leader of the Palestinian fight, embarrass Israel in the international arena, and possibly even throw a spoke in the wheels of the "deal of the century" for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for which the Trump administration still has hope.
The 'hot border' strategy
There are many people behind the mass "marches of return" along the Israeli-Gaza border. Yoni Ben Menachem, a research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, says in a recent paper that the Hamas movement intends to turn the campaign of "return" into a new intifada along the Gaza border. Ben Menachem believes that this is an "Iranian strategy designed to create a 'hot border' in the Gaza Strip and thwart the 'Trump deal' and any [increased] closeness between Israel and Arab states."
Lt. Col. (res.) Yoni Dahuh-Halevy, also of the JCPA, notes that the National Committee for the Marches of Return is headed by Omar Khaled al-Batsh, one of the heads of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and the cousin of the late Hamas drone engineer Fadi al-Batsh.
The protests at the border fence, which began in March and are planned to reach their peak on Nakba Day in May – when the U.S. intends to move its embassy to Jerusalem – have resulted in the deaths of at least 35 Palestinians as of Thursday. Hundreds more have been injured. An in-depth review by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reveals that 32 of those killed were either confirmed terrorist operatives or linked to terrorist organizations, particularly Hamas and Fatah. Nine were members of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades; 10 belonged to Fatah and another four were members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Nine more of the casualties have been linked to other terrorist organizations.
Meanwhile, the Middle East Media Research Institute reported that Hamas is paying compensation to families of those killed: $3,000 for the relatives of a "shahid" (martyr), as well as a few hundred dollars to families whose relatives were injured.
The presence of children and teenagers at the marches of return is a tragedy. Often, as photographs show, they are used as human shields for adults. This week, the group Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center filed a suit in the International Criminal Court in The Hague against the heads of Hamas for using minors under the age of 15 in the protests and turning them into "soldiers."
Here we should mention Fahti Hamad, a member of Hamas' political leadership and a former "interior minister" for the organization. Hamad and his colleagues Haniyeh, Hamas Prime Minister Yahya Sinwar, and Gen. Tawfik Abu Naim are in charge of the campaign of return, and Hamad has in the past described how the organization uses civilians as human shields. Hamad declared during Operation Cast Lead in February 2008 that "the Palestinian people have developed their own method of killing. For them, death has become an industry, and women excel. It has turned women, children, the elderly, and mujahedeen ("holy warriors") into human shields. As they told the Zionist enemy: 'We long for death like you long for life.'"
As the world accuses Israel of murdering Mohammed Ayoub, the 15-year-old who was fatally shot in the head last Friday at a protest on the border, it would do well to remember the philosophy of death espoused by Hamad, one of the orchestrators of the marches of return.
