JERUSALEM (JTA) — Ireland will expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of fake Irish passports in the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai.
An Israeli staff member at the Dublin Embassy would be expelled, Ireland’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, following an investigation showing that the eight Irish passports used in the January assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a hotel room in Dubai were forgeries.
Britain and Australia also have expelled Israeli diplomats following investigations that pointed toward Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency as responsible for the assassination.
"The misuse of Irish passports by a state with which Ireland enjoys friendly, if sometimes frank, bilateral relations is clearly unacceptable and requires a firm response," Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Tuesday in a statement.
The expelled diplomat is not the ambassador, the French news agency AFP reported.
Forged British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports were used by the assassins to enter Dubai.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was involved in the assassination.
