Daily Mail report.

MI6 was tipped off that Israeli agents were going to carry out an 'overseas operation' using fake British passports, it was claimed last night.

A member of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, said the Foreign Office was also told hours before a Hamas terrorist chief was assassinated in Dubai.

The tip-off did not say who the target would be or even where the hit squad would be in action.

But the claim from a credible source that the Government had some prior knowledge of the abuse of UK passports will strengthen calls for ministers to come clean about what they knew and when.

From Haaretz.

If anyone still had doubts about an imminent conflict with Iran, it was removed this week by the arrival of the U.S. army chief in Israel and the threats from the Iranian president and Hezbollah secretary-general.

Something sinister is in the air.

If the international community's collision course with Tehran leads to harsh sanctions meant to halt its nuclear program, the spring and summer months will be especially sensitive. It would be impossible to rule out a scenario in which the increasing tension leads to all-out open war. Tehran and Jerusalem regularly exchange threatening messages via various channels, but with Beirut, Gaza and Damascus in the middle, the situation is liable to get out of control.

Robert Fisk in the Independent.

Collusion. That's what it's all about. The United Arab Emirates suspect -- only suspect, mark you -- that Europe's "security collaboration" with Israel has crossed a line into illegality, where British passports (and those of other other EU nations) can now be used to send Israeli agents into the Gulf to kill Israel's enemies.

Telegraph report.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, is facing accusations of collusion with Israel after two former members of his Fatah faction were linked to the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month.

[...]

Making a potentially explosive accusation, Hamas alleged that Ahmad Hasnin and Anwar Shekhaiber are employed by a company whose owner is a top confidante of Mr Abbas, the western-backed leader of the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank.

Guardian article.

The Mossad, like other intelligence services, tends to attract attention only when something goes wrong, or when it boasts a spectacular success and wants to send a warning signal to its enemies. Last month's assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai, now at the centre of a white-hot diplomatic row between Israel and Britain, is a curious mixture of both.

With its cloned foreign passports, multiple disguises, state-of-the-art communications and the murder of alleged arms smuggler Mahmoud al-Mabhouh -- one of the few elements of the plot that was not captured on the emirate's CCTV cameras -- it is a riveting tale of professional chutzpah, violence and cold calculation. And with the Palestinian Islamist movement now vowing to take revenge, it seems grimly certain that it will bring more bloodshed in its wake.

Robert Fisk in the Independent.

According to a Dubai "source" of The Independent -- readers will have to judge what this means -- the security forces of the aforesaid emirate informed a "British diplomat" in Dubai (presumably the consul, since the embassy is in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi) of the UK passport details almost six days ago and "did not receive an appropriate reply". If this is true -- the Foreign Office will be wrathful in its denials -- then why didn't the British immediately express their outrage at the use of forged British passports and cough up details of the equally outrageous frauds a week ago? This misuse puts every British citizen at risk.

Times report.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has been brought in to investigate the use of British passports in the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Hurriyet Daily News report.

A major threat to world peace from Iran's obtaining nuclear weapons would be the kick off of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, in which a number of countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would seek nuclear weapons, the Israeli prime minister told his Greek counterpart at a meeting in Russia.

BBC report.

Passports belonging to the alleged killers of a top Hamas official in Dubai are fakes, the British and Irish governments have said.

Times report.

Police in the Gulf state announced that they were hunting for 11 suspects, including a woman, for the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas commander, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20.

Six of these suspects were travelling on British passports and three were carrying Irish passports, including the woman. The other two entered Dubai with German and French passports.

From Israeli Defense Forces news site.

"The option to attack Iran is still on the table, but we're not there yet."

BBC report.

At least 29 Israeli settlements in the West Bank are violating a government-ordered pause in building activity, the Israeli Defence Ministry has said.

IMEMC report.

The Energy Authority in the Gaza Strip reported Saturday that Gaza's sole power plant will case functioning in a matter of hours due to the ongoing Israeli blockade, preventing basic supplies including fuel needed to run the generators, from entering Gaza.

Haaretz report.

Israel may lack the military means for successful preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told Channel 2 news on Saturday.

[...]

"We are taking upon ourselves a task that is bigger than us" Halutz, who stepped down in 2007, said when asked about Israeli leaders' vows to "take care" of the perceived threat.

Times article.

Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities.

Israeli agents have been targeting meetings between members of Hamas and the leadership of the militant Hezbollah group, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

They are also suspected of recent killings in Dubai, Damascus and Beirut. While Israel's Mossad spy agency has been suspected of staging assassinations across the world since the 1970s, it does not officially acknowledge or admit its activities.

Independent report.

To disagree with the state is to 'delegitimise' the state: that is the increasingly strident response of the country's political and military establishment to those who dare to criticise its conduct.