The time Israel executed a hit in Malta

TLDR at the bottom.

So, I remember reading this article last year: https://timesofmalta.com/article/the-sliema-murder-palestinian-jihadist-sparked-fire-middle-east.1118501. It was about the killing of a "Libyan".

At this time, and now, I am reading a book called " Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations". It is written by Israeli journalist, Rosen Bergman. When I read the article, it reeked of Israeli hit job.

Malta is referenced as a "base country". So, a country in which it was not particularly dangerous to operate for the Israelis to commit an assassination.

The person killed wasn’t Libyan (as first thought), but a terrorist from Palestine called Fathi Shaqaqi of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He studied medicine at the Zagazig University in Egypt, and was responsible for the planning of the Beit Lid terrorist attack.

They aimed to kill Shaqaqi earlier, June 1995, by planting a road side bomb, on the Tunis to Tripoli highway, but when the IDF went into Tunisia, via boat and hiking on the dunes, to plant the bomb, they saw the highway was busier than expected due to a Morocco to Egypt rally, that non-Arabics were taking part in. So, they scrapped the planned mission.

I am at the point of the book, where they cover the hit in Sliema. Chapter 25, "Bring us the head of Ayyash".

Shaqaqi had a Libyan passport, that Muammar Qasdafi organized, with the name Ibrahim Shawfish. Shaqaqi would travel through Malta, to Tunisia, and drive to Tripoli, when he needed to meet with Gaddafi. Gaddafi was fully involved in Jihadi and terrorist funding and support at this point.

Back then, Israel denied involvement and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin alluded that Shaqaqi had enemies in Palestine and it could have been someone from there.

Here is a summary of what happened:

*October 22: "Jerry" (a commander appointed for the killing) and his team identified Shaqaqi at Malta airport. Despite Shaqaqi wearing a wig, the team confirmed his identity before he boarded a flight to Tunis.

​*Knowing Shaqaqi often stayed at the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema during travels to Libya, the Mossad team waited for his return.

*​October 26: Shaqaqi was spotted returning to Malta. Assassin team followed him to the hotel, where he checked into room 616.

*Shaqaqi went shopping for shirts at Marks & Spencer, an Israeli operative followed him.

*Once Shaqaqi was in a "vulnerable" position, "Jerry" gave the activation code "Honey Bun" over the radio.

*At 1:15 P.M., two operatives on a Yamaha motorcycle approached Shaqaqi. The passenger shot him three times (twice in the head and once in the neck) using a silenced pistol.

*The assassins fled via motorcycle while the rest of the team used rental cars to reach a nearby beach (did not mention which one).

*A speedboat manned by commandos disguised as tourists picked up the team and transported them to an Israeli Navy missile boat waiting in international waters.

TLDR: Israel first denied killing Fathi Shaqaqi (traveling under Libyan passport name of Ibrahim Shawfish), but the book I am reading explains the mission to kill him, and it was a planned hit by the IDF, Mossad and Caesarea (department who handled executions outside of Israel). Malta was seen as a country that was considered dangerous for Israel to commit assassinations in.