Members of Palestinian Hamas security forces carry a coffin containing the body of Palestinian engineering lecturer Fadi al-Batsh in the southern Gaza Strip on April 26, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.

The body of Fadi al-Batsh, a Palestinian lecturer and Hamas operative who was gunned down in Malaysia at the weekend, was repatriated to Gaza and buried on Thursday.

Hamas, the Islamist terror group that controls the Gaza Strip and claimed Batsh as its “son,” has accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency of assassinating him. Israel’s defense minister has said Batsh might have been killed in an internal Palestinian dispute.

Malaysian authorities said two men on a high-powered motorcycle fired at least 14 shots at Batsh, an engineering lecturer, outside his Kuala Lumpur apartment building on Saturday, killing him on the spot.

Malaysia’s deputy prime minister said the two suspects were believed to be linked to a foreign intelligence service.

Batsh’s body was flown to Egypt, accompanied by his wife and son, and then taken by road to Gaza for a reception attended by members of all political factions and relatives, followed by burial in the northern Gaza Strip.

“We hold the occupation (Israel) responsible for the killing and martyrdom of Fadi, the killers of scientists will not escape punishment,” senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya said as the body was received in Gaza.

Policemen carried Batsh’s coffin, draped in the Palestinian flag, past an honor guard as family members wept.

“The sinful hands that assassinated Batsh will be severed,” Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political chief, said at the funeral rally. Hamas has confirmed Batsh was a member, but has not specified what role he had in the movement.

Hamas is designated by Israel and the West as a terrorist group.

Source:http://www.algemeiner.com/category/news/feed/

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