“There is suspicion that Israel was involved in the murder of the Hamas engineer Mohamed al-Zouari” Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said during a speech marking the new year.
According to Essebsi there are operational indications that foreign elements stand behind the assassination adding that the investigation is proceeding apace to find out the perpetrators.
Addressing the parties who leveled heavy criticism at the government for failing to detect the abettors the Tunisian president said: “We know very well how to deal with the Israeli occupation as we did earlier when it struck Hamam al-Shott and the Palestinian leadership in Tunisia on October 1 1985.”
He added that following the 1985 attack the Tunisian leadership resorted to the UN Security Council and despite the claims of the U.S. President Ronald Reagan that Israel was in a legitimate state of self-defense Israel was convicted.
Tunisian scientist Mohamed al-Zouari was gunned down on December 15 2016 outside of his home in the southern Tunisian city of Sfax.
Born in 1967 al-Zouari sacrificed much of his time and money in manufacturing drones for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. In the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza he assisted Hamas drone program in a move that earned him an outstanding reputation.
Hamas and its armed wing—the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades—accused Israel of stage-managing the crime.
