![Israeli Defence Minster Avigdor Lieberman [Twitter]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Avigdor-LiebermanDdUNLNIU0AMAFrc.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The Israeli government has asked Egypt not to allow the body of a Palestinian scholar killed in Malaysia to pass through the Rafah Broder Crossing in the besieged Gaza Strip, local media have reported. Fadi Al-Batsh was assassinated on Saturday morning while he was walking to a mosque in Kuala Lumpur for the dawn prayer.
Israel’s Defence Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, revealed this on Sunday. Al-Batsh, he claimed, was working on improvements to the rockets used by Hamas.
According to Ronen Bergman, an Israeli investigative journalist and author, the Mossad spy agency assassinated the engineer. The senior political and military analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth took to Twitter to assert that Al-Batsh was part of a secret Hamas unit that worked to develop its weapons. The slain man’s family, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinians factions also blamed Mossad for the murder.
Read: Israel media pins targeting of Palestinian engineer on Mossad