Following the assassination of Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, German state prosecutors are considering murder charges in the case. Investigations in Dubai and the West are strongly pointing to Mossad involvement in the targeted killing.

One should not speak ill of the dead, the Prophet Muhammad once intoned. But Mahmoud al-Zahar, 64, the leader of the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza Strip, is now forced to make a small exception. Sitting on the ground floor of his home in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, he talks about his comrade Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was liquidated by a hit squad in a Dubai hotel on Jan. 20. How could al-Mabhouh have been so careless and booked his flights over the Internet, asks the co-founder of Hamas? "That was more than stupid."

Shortly after al-Mabhouh's death, when Hamas leaders began pointing the finger at Israel, many observers wrote it off as just another Middle East conspiracy theory. But following revelations by police in Dubai as well as their own investigations, governments in the West have little doubt that this was a Mossad hit.

Last week, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, told members of the German parliament, the Bundestag, that Mossad was apparently behind the Dubai operation.

This is also now an open secret in Israel, despite military censorship. A number of Israelis have identified acquaintances from the photos released of the 26 suspects who are thought to be involved in the operation. Karmel Shama, a member of parliament in the center-right Likud Party, even stood before the Knesset and praised the killing as a mitzvah, a religious commandment, adding that Mossad chief Meir Dagan had done "good work."