Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh (Arabic: محمود عبد الرؤوف المبحوح‎; 14 February 1960 – 19 January 2010) was the chief of logistics and weapons procurement for Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

[4] In 2010, journalists Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv alleged that al-Mabhouh had played a vital role as the middleman in forging secret relationships between Hamas and the Quds Force in Iran.

[5] Al-Mabhouh was killed in the five-star Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 19 January 2010, having arrived in the country earlier that day from Syria under an alias and using one of several passports.

According to Hamas, al-Mabhouh was personally responsible for the abduction and killing of the Israeli soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon in 1989.

[3][15] In a video taped two weeks before his death and broadcast on Al Jazeera in early February 2010, al-Mabhouh admitted his involvement in this event, saying he had disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew.

[18] According to a report in The Palestine Chronicle, al-Mabhouh had survived two assassination attempts; the first was a car bombing; the second took place in Beirut in 2009 and involved the use of radioactive poison which rendered him unconscious for 30 hours.

[21] Just before his killing, al-Mabhouh was alleged to have played a key role in forging secret connections between the Hamas government in Gaza and the Al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran.

[23] He had been followed by at least eleven Mossad agents who were carrying fake or fraudulently obtained passports from various Western countries, seven of which assumed the names of Israeli dual citizens.

At 8 pm al-Mabhouh left the hotel and while several of the suspects kept watch, two tried to gain entry to his room, but were disturbed when a tourist exited the nearby lift.

[31] Results from a preliminary forensic report by the Dubai police found that al-Mabhouh was first paralyzed by an injection of succinylcholine (suxamethonium), a fast-acting muscle relaxant.

[33] Dubai authorities stated they were ruling the death a homicide and were working with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to investigate the incident.

[34] Lieutenant general Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of the Dubai Police Force, announced on 18 February 2010 that, "Our investigations reveal that Mossad was definitely involved in the murder of al-Mabhouh ...

[44] Passports used by the killers were from the United Kingdom (6),[45] Republic of Ireland (5),[46] Australia (3),[47] France (1 – suspected of being the hit squad leader and logistical coordinator),[48][49] and Germany (1).

[50] The photographs of eleven of the operatives were added to Interpol's most wanted list on 18 February, with a note specifying that they had been published since the identities used by the agents were fake.

[55] In early June 2010, German prosecutors announced that at Germany's request Polish authorities had arrested a suspected Mossad agent thought to have played a role in the Dubai assassination of a high ranking Hamas leader.

[56] In the wake of the revelation that passports of British citizens had figured prominently in the operation, the United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency launched its own investigation into the matter.

[62] On 15 June, following an extensive investigation, the Department of Foreign Affairs came to "the inescapable conclusion that an Israeli government agency was responsible for the misuse and, most likely, the manufacture of the forged Irish passports associated with the murder of Mr.

In June, The Canberra Times revealed that Elkoubi was an officer of Mossad leading Israeli diplomats to complain that the disclosure was a further act of retaliation.

[69] After al-Mabhouh's death, the United Arab Emirates requested that the U.S. assist it in tracking down "cardholder details and related information for credit cards reportedly issued by a U.S. bank to several suspects."