“Haniyeh accused Israeli Mossad of carrying out the assassination of young Palestinian scholar Dr Fadi al-Batch, who was shot dead on Saturday at dawn in Malaysia,” Hamas website reported.
“We blame the Israeli Mossad of carrying out the assassination of Dr Fadi al-Batch,” Hamas quoted Haniyeh as saying.“
The timing of the assassination of the scholar is intended, but the Palestinian people will remain resilient,” he added.
“We dispatched a senior delegation to hold meetings with the Malaysian officials and follow up closely the details of the crime,” he reiterated.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said authorities were not discounting the possible involvement of foreign agents in the killing of the Palestinian private university lecturer.
There has been no comment from Israeli authorities.
Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander and one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades, was assassinated by Mossad agents at Al Bustan Rotana hotel in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on January 19, 2010.
A close look at Al Batsh's case
Fadi al-Batsh was targeted by at least 10 shots fired at him by two bike-riding gunmen in the suburb of Gombak in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
Police markers indicated 14 bullets had been sprayed at the victim, some of them hitting a wall.
The autopsy was being carried out on Sunday. Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim said, "We are investigating all angles. I have to investigate very carefully and deeply.”
The family of the Palestinian professor accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of killing him. In a statement from the Gaza Strip, his family said: "We accuse the Mossad of being behind the assassination."
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh also said Mossad had been behind past attempts to assassinate Palestinian scientists, and that al-Batsh's killing "follows this sequence."
Onlookers told Reuters that the attackers had "European features," and Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the suspects were believed to be European with links to a foreign intelligence agency.
“This is an international issue," the police chief noted.
The 35-year-old expert in electrical engineering, who would lecture at University of Kuala Lumpur, had lived in Malaysia for the past 10 years. He is survived by his wife and three young children.
The victim could have been seen as "a liability for a country that is an enemy of Palestine," Zahid also said, apparently referring to Israel.
Israel has assassinated many figures with the Palestinian group.
Last March, Tel Aviv assassinated Mazen Fuqaha, one of the group’s senior figures, in Gaza City. The victim was shot with four bullets to his head.
In 2010, Israel had itself embroiled in an international scandal when its operatives used false European and Australian passports to assassinate senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the United Arab Emirates.
The killing and the circumstances surrounding it also raised suspicions of complicity by Emirati intelligence and other services in the assassination.
Commenting on the assassination, Israeli minister for military affairs Avigdor Lieberman dismissed suggestions that al-Batsh had been killed by Mossad. He alleged that it was likely that the victim had been killed as part of an internal Palestinian dispute
