# Hamas leader electrocuted by Israel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882 "2010-02-06T02:43:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/61 "2010-02-11T22:06:34Z")
**The foil-garment guy…** The other day, before encountering this thread, I was telling a friend about an SDMB thread on the poor guy who was suddenly burned because of his clothing. As I remember, he worked at a small airport. He had been wearing foil and/or foil-lined clothing for a while. The day he wore foil-lined underwear inside his foil-lined pants, he touched an airplane with its engine running. For anybody else, it would have been a harmless static shock, but he was wearing a giant capacitor (two layers of foil separated by cloth.) There was a fiery flash inside his clothes.:eek: I think I remember his was not seriously burned, but he had to promise his boss he wouldn’t dress that way again.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/62 "2010-02-11T22:24:49Z")
> [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](#): > > Hey, come on. Chemistry jokes are really not the solution here. Well, as my college professor said “If you’re not part of the solution…you’re part of the precipitate.” ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/63 "2010-02-11T23:43:28Z")
> [@I-VI-ii-V](#): > > Does this thread need a jump start? No, it’s entirely grounded in reality and current. ---
**Author:** ![Wincerind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@Wincerind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wincerind)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/64 "2010-02-12T09:16:15Z")
> [@Themenin](#): > > All this unseemly wisecracking will only serve to generate more tension in what is already a highly polarized situation. Shouldn’t that be wisecrackling? ---
**Author:** ![beatlejuice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@beatlejuice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beatlejuice)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/65 "2010-02-12T14:28:28Z")
It’s shocking how insensitive you posters are. Can we get back to the original question of who plugged him, please. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/66 "2010-02-12T22:51:11Z")
Wow, all this lampooning really struck a cord with you guys, huh? I hope the investigators have the energy to get to work finding the culprit, instead of sitting around stroking their chins and watting for a light bulb to go off. They need to catch him before he goes off grid. A photo at the scene shows the guy had wirey limbs and bulbous head but that evidence might just be a plant. Has this sort of thing ever happened before? What parallels can we draw to the series of previous events? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/67 "2010-02-13T05:18:03Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Seems like a very ineffective way of killing someone. A healthy adult will likely survive electrocution even at 220v Amperes to me that someone is not that well grounded in the definition of [electrocution](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/electrocution). As far as I know, one can never “survive electrocution”–no matter how healthy or adult they are. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/68 "2010-02-16T12:28:40Z")
[Dubai Seeks Global Dragnet for Hamas Slaying](http://abcnews.go.com/International/wirestory?id=9848910&page=1) ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/69 "2010-02-16T12:45:31Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > [Dubai Seeks Global Dragnet for Hamas Slaying](http://abcnews.go.com/International/wirestory?id=9848910&page=1) Some of those costumes are truly shocking… ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/70 "2010-02-16T23:23:51Z")
I mean, using stolen or forged passports, several spotters, and excellent timing! Sounds like a Mossad operation-or it could be a rival terrorist group (Hezballah?) who WANT to make it look like the Mossad did it! In any case, a monster got sent to hell-I applaud whoever removed this POS from the earth. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/71 "2010-02-17T03:10:47Z")
I am certainly not an expert, but I doubt a high quality organization like Mossad did this. Did you see Ireland’s comment on the “passports” used by the team? The passport IDs didn’t have the correct number of digits, and genuine Irish passport IDs contain both numbers and letters. The fakes had only numbers. OTOH, the team obviously knew the quality of the border controls in Dubai and didn’t waste any unnecessary effort on quality documents. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/72 "2010-02-17T12:08:34Z")
> **[BBC News - British men named as assassins shocked by claims](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8519366.stm)** > > UK citizens whose names were on passports used by an alleged hit squad insist they had nothing to do with killing a Hamas commander. Quite outrageous really, this, regardless of how “evil” the victim allegedly is. I would be pretty angry if Mossad had used my identity to carry out a murder. If they wish to indulge in these activities that’s up to them but they have no right to involve innocent people in the matter. Not least because they may kill the wrong person and murder an innocent by mistake - which has happened before I believe. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/73 "2010-02-17T14:17:32Z")
This is a GQ thread, not MPSIMS. I came to this thread to find out some information about the murder in Dubai, and 90% of the post are not-very-good puns about electricity. Am I the only one that is annoyed? Of course, by asking this question, I have hijacked the thread, but the thread is pretty much way OT anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/74 "2010-02-17T14:47:37Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > Am I the only one that is annoyed? Not at all. I am also shocked by the response here. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/75 "2010-02-17T16:47:07Z")
According to one [source](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/dubai/7250217/Dubai-Hamas-assassination-Irish-citizens-not-involved-Ireland-says.html), he may have been 1. injected with a poison to make his heart stop; 2. _and_ electrocuted; 3. _and_ strangled, supposedly all done by the female agent in the whole hunting party (she is shown in a wig in the linked story). Sounds like a little bit of overkill there, but way to go on the hat-trick! (Would not like to marry this woman and then piss her off, though. :eek:) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/76 "2010-02-18T02:05:57Z")
OK. This is is my working hypothesis: She comes in looking like a hotel electrician with biaxial cable. She splits it into two, strips off some of the insulator, winds and melts the exposed wires to make them pointy. She dips the wires into some poison. She sneaks up on the guy, and sticks the two leads into his chest, crossing the heart. She wraps the rest of the cable around his neck, and the respools it ever tighter. Next they’ll find that he committed suicide with three gunshot wounds into his back.\* I love this story so much that I plant to write a triode to it. \*Whatever happened to silencer/handguns that go [phit, phit, phit](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAwW7Imf0l0&feature=related)? ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/77 "2010-02-18T07:00:37Z")
The UK [seems to be annoyed](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8521246.stm) that some of the assassins were using fake UK passports. Both [Canada](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/208368.stm)and [New Zealand](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/international/middleeast/27kiwi.html) has had rows with Israel over the misuse of their passports for Israeli spies. The fact that none of the assassins used Canuck/Kiwi identities could be another clue that points to the Mossad. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/78 "2010-02-18T09:09:07Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > I am certainly not an expert, but I doubt a high quality organization like Mossad did this. Did you see Ireland’s comment on the “passports” used by the team? The passport IDs didn’t have the correct number of digits, and genuine Irish passport IDs contain both numbers and letters. The fakes had only numbers. OTOH, the team obviously knew the quality of the border controls in Dubai and didn’t waste any unnecessary effort on quality documents. This is one of the oldest tricks in a very big book for Mossad. Obviously they wouldn’t use the perfect fakes they can get hold of anytime. They’d simply make it look like some less well organised group of assassins had done it. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/79 "2010-02-18T20:03:53Z")
Twice I’ve been in this thread and received a **fraudpack.exe** virus alert. Anyone else having a similar problem? Hang on, I think there might be someone in my back garden — if I’m not back in 10 mins, someone phone the local plods for me. ps. I’m in M/cr, so it’s probably 999. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882/80 "2010-02-18T20:15:38Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > Of course, by asking this question, I have hijacked the thread, but the thread is pretty much way OT anyway. Calm down, you don’t want to blow a fuse, do you? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamas-leader-electrocuted-by-israel/527882.md?page=5)