JERUSALEM // The life and dramatic assassination of a Hamas military commander by suspected Israeli spies in Dubai earlier this year will be the plot of a forthcoming television series.
Written by Mahmoud al Zahar, a senior official and spokesman for Hamas, the series will touch on the early life of Mahmoud al Mabhouh as well as his murder in a Dubai hotel room in January.
Twenty-seven suspected agents of Israel's spy agency, Mossad, have been identified by Dubai Police as participating in the elaborate plot to assassinate al Mabhouh.
Mr Zahar told a gathering of Palestinian writers in the Gaza Strip last week that he was working on the screenplay about his fallen comrade, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported yesterday.
It would be an educational television programme that highlighted al Mabhouh's credentials as a Palestinian nationalist and his struggles fighting Israel from exile after being forced to flee the country in 1989.
This month, Canadian officials called claims by Dubai's police chief that Canadian security had secretly arrested a would-be Mossad assassin connected with the al Mabhouh cases "baseless", according to the Canadian daily The Globe and Mail.
Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim claimed that the arrested agent had attempted to kill al Mabhouh shortly before his murder and expressed frustration at Canadian authorities for withholding information on the issue.
Investigators in al Mabhouh's death say that suspects began preparing the assassination attempt as far back as last year.
After he checked into his room at the Al Bustan Rotana on Jan 19, al Mabhouh is believed to have gone out shopping while surveillance teams of the assassin squad shadowed him and tracked his movements.
