Hamas claims foiling Israeli intelligence operations in Gaza

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Saturday it had thwarted several Israeli intelligence operations in the Gaza Strip.

Iyad al-Buzum, the ministry spokesman, did not, however, provide any details of the thwarted operations.

On Monday, Doha-based Al-Jazeera TV said that last month Malaysian authorities had freed a Palestinian kidnapped by Israeli Mossad agents in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

"This was not the first time that Mossad failed in carrying out operations against Palestinians," al-Buzum told Anadolu Agency.

There was no comment from Israeli authorities on the report.

In 2018, Fadi al-Batsh, a research engineer thought to be linked to Hamas, was gunned down near his home in the Malaysian capital by two gunmen who fled the scene.

While his family has accused the Israeli spy agency Mossad of carrying out the assassination, then-Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied Israel's involvement.

Israel is widely believed to have killed numerous Palestinian activists in the past, many of them overseas.

In 1997, in Jordan, Mossad agents tried and failed to kill then-Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal by spraying poison into his ear.

Mossad is also believed to have been behind the assassination in 2010 of top Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh in a Dubai hotel.

Israel has never confirmed or denied its involvement in Mabhuh's murder.