By Haaretz Service Fri., September 24th, 2004 Tishrei 9, 5765
The London-based Al-Hayat paper reported Friday that the intelligence service of an Arab state has recently passed Israel extremely valuable information on the Hamas infrastructure in foreign countries. According to the report, Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, also received detailed information on two Hamas leaders, Khaled Mashal and Mussa Abu Marzuk. The infromation reportedly included details of their places of residence, their pastimes and the type of food they eat. The paper said that the information was handed over at the request of Mossad chief Meir Dagan following the August suicide attacks in which 16 people were killed and which were claimed by Hamas.
Mashal, who went underground in the wake of the Be'er Sheva attacks, this week visited Egyptian officials in Cairo. The Hamas leader arrived in Cairo as the Palestinian factions were due to begin talks on the Israeli disengagement plan. But, said Egyptian sources, the talks were rescheduled for October after Egypt did not receive from Israel the guarantees it had demanded regarding the Palestinians. Palestinian sources said that while in Egypt, Mashal discussed a document authored by the Egyptians for the Palestinian Authority and the other factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The document - the "ideas paper" - was aimed at reaching a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of the planned Israeli disengagement, as well as the creation of a new government in the Strip.
The sources also added that the Egyptians demanded Mashal cut Hamas' ties with arms smugglers in Gaza who provide the movement with weapons. But Mohamed Nazal, a close associate of Mashal, denied that he had discussed a cease-fire agreement while in Cairo. In the first half of 2004, Israel assassinated two of the Hamas movement's most senior figures. Spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in a helicopter strike as he left a Gaza mosque in March. Several weeks later, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, seen as Yassin's successor in the Gaza Strip, died in an Israeli air strike on his car.
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