THE brother of the Palestinian leader assassinated in Dubai has called on the Irish Government to expel the Israeli ambassador from Ireland.

Diplomats were today investigating reports that two more Irish passports were linked to a team of assassins who murdered a senior Hamas official in Dubai.

The killing of a senior Hamas official in Dubai should not be considered as murder, an Israeli minister said today.

A Hamas leader assassinated during a visit to Dubai last month exposed himself to attack when he breached security protocol by talking about his trip over the phone and making hotel reservations on the internet, the militant Islamic group said today.

The victim of a meticulously planned assassination involving up to 17 people, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was a marked man before he ever left Damascus, writes Catherine Shanahan.

Foreign Affairs minister Micheál Martin has said the three Irish passports used by a group of operatives who allegedly assassinated a Hamas commander in Dubai had valid numbers, reversing his department's position of a day earlier.

THE Department of Foreign Affairs has managed to identify the three people whose Irish passports were unknowingly faked by the assassins of a Hamas commander.

DUBAI police have appealed for an international manhunt after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander last month in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs.

Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt today after releasing names and photographs of an alleged 11-member hit squad – including three with Irish passports and six with British passports – accused of killing a Hamas commander last month.

Dubai’s police chief said an 11-member hit squad carrying European passports was responsible for killing a Hamas commander in his hotel room last month.

Hamas claimed today one of its veteran fighters was killed by Israeli agents in Dubai last week.