The Palestinian Islamic group Hamas suspects an Israeli agent of assuming the identity of a BBC journalist to prepare an attack that killed one of its political leaders, Palestinian daily Al-Qods reported Friday.
A Hamas official told the newspaper that, a few minutes before Jamal Mansur and five other activists were assassinated in a missile attack in Nablus on July 31, an individual claiming to be a BBC journalist phoned him in at his office for an interview.
The official, who was not identified by Al-Qods, explained that it might have been an Israeli stratagem to make sure Mansur was in the office at the time of the strike.
The phone call was confirmed by Mansur's brother, Jihad Salim, who was in the office and survived the attack, the same source said.
"Following extensive inquiries, the BBC has found no evidence of any call being made by any BBC representative to the office of Sheikh Mansur on the day of his death", the media organization said in a statement issued in London.
The BBC's Jerusalem bureau also told AFP that Hamas had never contacted them to check whether the call had effectively been made.
During the first Intifada (1987-1993), plain-clothed members of a special Israeli unit had been filmed driving a van bearing a "foreign press" inscription -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
