Arab electronic newspaper: Murder of Lebanese ex-minister Hobeika might be organized by Israeli Intelligence Mossad

The Arab electronic newspaper, Al-Bawaba, has come out with a version that the murder of the ex-minister and deputy of the Lebanese parliament, Elie Hobeika, in Beirut on Thursday might have been organised by the Israeli Institute for Intelligence Mossad.

According to the newspaper, the murder was caused by the fact that Hobeika had intended to act as a witness at the court trials of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The former energy minister and deputy of the parliament, Hobeika, was killed in an explosion in the Hazmiya quarter, north-eastern Beirut.

Hobeika is known for leading militarised units of the Christian Lebanese Forces, a military wing of the right-Christian party of Falangists Kataeb. In 1982 these forces participated in the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian residents of the Beirut camps of Sabra and Shatila. That's why local law-enforcers do not exclude that the explosion was a terrorist act against the former minister.

A RIA Novosti correspondent reports that not long before the explosion, in an interview with the al-Jazeera TV company of Qatar, Elie Hobeika accused the Israeli Premier of planning the massacre of Palestinian refugees. In 1982, when the Israeli army seized Beirut, Ariel Sharon was the Israeli Minister of Defence. Hobeika stated that he was ready to be a witness at the international tribunal against Sharon. The tribunal was due in Belgium this March.

On September 17, 1982, the Israeli troops let militants of the Christian armed formations enter the blocked Palestinian camps. As a result 800-1.500 refugees, including women, children and elders, were murdered.