Malaysia's arrest of Israeli man with 6 guns triggers mystery - was Mossad or the mob involved?

The arrest of an Israeli national in upscale Kuala Lumpur armed with several guns and a French passport and who confessed to his underworld links has spurred fevered speculation in Malaysia about the intended target of his apparent assassination plot.

Officers nabbed the 36-year-old suspect at a hotel on March 27, and checks on his hotel room yielded a cache of six semi-automatic pistols including a Sig Sauer, a Glock and Smith and Wesson, 200 bullets and several pairs of surgical gloves, all kept inside a bag.

The suspect was quickly identified by Israeli media as alleged mobster Shalom Avitan, purportedly an associate of the Israel-based Musli crime family.

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He had confessed to being on a mission to kill the head of a rival Israeli criminal outfit who the suspect claimed had taken up residence in the Southeast Asian nation, Malaysian police said.

But the confession has done little to douse speculation over the real target of the assassination bid in Malaysia, one of the most outspoken nations against Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza and other past transgressions targeting the Palestinians. Muslim-majority Malaysia, which does not recognise Israel, maintains ties with Hamas and has diplomatic relations with the State of Palestine.

A month into the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced any nation which supports or harbours Hamas, telling reporters he had "instructed the Mossad to act against the heads of Hamas wherever they are".

The suspect entered the country via the United Arab Emirates using a French passport on March 12 and was issued a tourist visa, and then flitted between four hotels in Kuala Lumpur over the next fortnight, police have said. Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution later confirmed that the suspect had a valid French passport.

"During questioning, he produced a second passport from Israel," said Malaysia's police chief Razarudin Husain on Friday. The suspect said he had procured the weapons locally, as it would have been impossible to bring the weapons with him from his departure point in the UAE, Razarudin added.

Reuters reported that police arrested three Malaysians believed to have assisted the suspect in securing the weapons. The suspect had earlier told police that he paid for the weapons using cryptocurrency.

Despite the suspect's confessions of his underworld connections, he was not flagged at immigration as he did not trigger Malaysia's blacklist, Minister Saifuddin told reporters on Monday.

"If travel documents are valid, and we have no issues with the country issuing the travel documents and they are not on our blacklist, we will allow entry," he said.

While Saifuddin did not comment on the suspect's motives, he spoke about Malaysia's Palestinian community and the potential threat they could face. There are an estimated 620 Palestinian refugees in the country, according to figures from the UN Refugee Agency's Malaysia office.

In 2011, Malaysia founded the Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia (PCOM), an office meant to spread awareness of the Palestinian cause in Malaysia. The office, however, is also seen as an unofficial embassy of Hamas in the Southeast Asian nation given its routine hosting of Malaysian politicians and Hamas leaders, local and regional analysts say.

"The police's responsibility is to uphold security and public order. That is our guarantee," Saifuddin said. "If Palestinians living in the country have strong reason to believe their safety is at risk, the police will definitely attend to the matter."

At the announcement of the arrest, police chief Razarudin revealed his doubts over the suspect's motive.

"He claimed he was on the lookout for another Israeli that he wanted to kill, due to 'family issues'," Malaysia's top cop said in a live Facebook broadcast on Friday announcing the arrest. "We don't fully believe what the suspect said, there may be another agenda."

Last month, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he made "no apologies" for Malaysia's historical links with Palestinian militant group Hamas, arguing that the current Israel-Gaza war is the result of decades of "atrocities, plunder and dispossession of Palestinians".

Gaza's health ministry estimated more than 32,000 people - mostly civilians - have been killed so far in the war, launched by Israel in retaliation against an October 7 assault by Hamas that killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel. More than 250 others were also kidnapped by Hamas.

Anwar, who has been a leading voice in condemning Israel's deadly bombardments and ground operations in Gaza, in December banned vessels operated by Israeli shipping giant Zim and any ship bearing the Israeli flag from docking and unloading cargo at any Malaysian port.

Businesses in Malaysia seen to have links with Israel have not been spared public anger at the assault on Gaza and a sustained boycott has caused serious losses for the Malaysian franchise holders of US coffee chain Starbucks and fast food giant McDonald's.

While there is nothing in the public domain to show Mossad's link to the current case, the Israeli secret service has often been accused of staging assassinations overseas.

But police have got tongues wagging by refusing to rule out the possibility that the key suspect was a Mossad operative and ordered heightened security for Malaysia's king, Anwar and other high-level political figures.

"When the arrest happened, we saw the issue of Israel against Palestine and we were concerned for the safety of the prime minister, the king and maybe some officers or VVIPs who need heightened security," Razarudin said.

Ahmad El-Muhammady, a counter-terrorism expert with the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM), said the alleged involvement by Mossad could have arisen from the probability of Hamas members mingling with the hundreds of Palestinians who relocated to Malaysia either as refugees, to study or do business.

"What is more concerning is Malaysia becoming a third-country operation by foreign agents," Ahmad said, without specifying any country, adding that Malaysia has sufficient enforcement and anti-terror laws to tackle external threats.

Many in Malaysia believe Mossad was involved in targeted killings in the country previously.

In 2018, Fadi al-Batsh, a Palestinian engineer and academic, was gunned down outside his home on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur by two assailants. The family of the victim, alleged to be a Hamas member, claimed the hit was made by Mossad. Israel denied the claim. The two attackers were believed to have left the country shortly after the killing.

In 2022, 13 individuals were charged with kidnapping a Palestinian man, allegedly to secure software information to hack mobile phones. Malaysian authorities did not discount a possible Mossad involvement.

Malaysian authorities are right to take extra precautions following the arrest of the Israeli suspect, given the history of alleged Mossad intervention in Malaysia in recent years, said Collins Chong Yew Keat, a foreign policy analyst with Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

"The cautious steps taken are thus necessary to ensure that national security is always protected against any possible risks or threats from external sources," Chong told This Week in Asia.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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