Egyptian authorities have officially agreed to repatriate the body of the Palestinian engineer, Fadi Al-Batsh, who was killed on Saturday in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lampur, to the Gaza Strip for burial, the Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia announced yesterday.
Anwar Al-Agha said Al-Batsh’s body will be returned to Gaza through the Egyptian border. “The Palestinian embassy in Malaysia has received documents signed by the Egyptian side authorizing the transfer of the martyr’s [Al-Batch] body to Gaza via the Rafah crossing,” he explained.
“The Palestinian authorities are communicating with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which will be the body’s first transit, in order to speed up the procedures and finalize the required documents,” Anwar Al-Agha noted.
Lieberman calls on #Egypt not to allow entry of assassinated Palestinian engineer's body https://t.co/JgQZA5V2A3 #EgyptNews #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #Gaza #GazaNews #GazaStrip #Israel #IsraelNews #Malaysa #MalaysiaNews #News #Palestine #PalestineNews #WorldNews #Zionism
— Raimo Kangasniemi (@rk70534) April 24, 2018
Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had appealed to Egypt to refuse the Palestinian request. The body is expected to arrive in Egypt later this evening and in Gaza tomorrow.
Al-Batsh was shot while walking to a mosque near his home in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. The Malaysian police chief, Mohamed Fawzi, announced yesterday that they had found the motorcycle which they suspect was used in the attack “two kilometers from the location of the crime”.
Breaking #Malaysian police finds photo of one of the suspected killers in murder of #Palestinian engineer Fadi Al Batsh #FadiAlBatsh pic.twitter.com/JRdHK0eZ4z
— Amy Chew (@AmyChewCNA) April 25, 2018
Malaysian Interior Minister, Ahmed Zahid Hamidi, was quoted earlier by reporters in a press conference as saying that the perpetrators “were foreign agents of a Middle Eastern state that carries out secret missions in many countries to protect its interests.” He did not specify the country.
“The perpetrators had entered Kuala Lumpur with foreign passports of countries with diplomatic relations with Malaysia, making it difficult to track,” Hamidi noted.
Just in – The body of slain #Palestinian engineer Fadi Al Batsh will depart #Malaysia tomorrow evening for #Cairo by plane & then onward by land to #Gaza, #Palestinian ambassador tells CNA #FadiAlBatsh pic.twitter.com/bCj8qHQeSz
— Amy Chew (@AmyChewCNA) April 24, 2018
“Among the foreign countries, Middle Eastern ones that would do anything to destroy the capabilities of the Palestinian people,” he added, hinting at Israel’s involvement in the attack.
The Palestinian researcher, who had moved to Malaysia eight years ago with his wife and three children, was reported by Israeli media to have been an engineer in Hamas and an expert in unmanned aerial vehicles.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
