Lieberman: Rouhani could face ‘inside job’ killing like Faqha

Israel initially refused to comment on the killing, but Lieberman came out on Monday telling Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth: “We can say with certainty that it was an internal killing”.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if during the Iranian election on May 19, somebody assassinates the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani,” he added.

This comes after he gave a mellow response to the attack when asked last week, after Hamas vowed vengeance against Israel for Faqha’s killing.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited Lieberman as saying: "We have no quarrel with Hamas, they can do what they want," and that Israel has no time for Hamas “adventures”.

After senior Hamas official Mazen Faqha was killed late March, Hamas were quick to blame Israel for the attack and say inside collaborators were involved in Faqha’s assassination. 

At the time of the killing, a source close to Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, told The New Arab that Faqha's murder appears similar to the assassination of the Tunisian drone expert Mohamed Zaouari, which the group blamed on Israel.

Since then, Hamas had been on a search to find the killers, and had hung three "collaborators" suspected to be involved in the assassination.

Sources told The New Arab on Sunday that Hamas had captured one of Faqha's killers, with another one is "on the run in Israel."