Malaysia Denies Reported Claim Of Having Trained Hamas Fighters

By Mohammed Arsyad Md Yassin KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- Malaysia on Thursday denied an Israeli claim in a news report that the country was used as a training ground for the Hamas fighters in Palestine. Deputy Home Minister Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said Malaysia had never organised military training for any group other than the countries with which it had formal agreements. "The Home Ministry has never conducted clandestine training for Hamas fighters. We have training programmes with countries that have formal agreements with us," he told Bernama. Wan Junaidi said the unfounded report had a malicious intent to tarnish the country's image in the eyes of the world. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Israel's security agency Shin Bet claimed Hamas members had trained to use powered parachutes in Malaysia as part of the group's preparations against the Israel Defence Force (IDF). The report quoted Shin Bet as saying the information was disclosed by a Hamas cell commander nabbed on July 21 in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. Wan Junaidi described the false news as a malicious propaganda of Shin Bet because Malaysia supported the struggle of the people of Palestine and condemned Israel's atrocities in Gaza. --BERNAMA