Mystery of explosion victim revealed: Hamas top official

A man found dead Monday after an explosion in an industrial zone in the Palestinian-controlled area of Ramallah was identified today by Palestinian police as Mouhidin al-Sharif, a high-ranking Hamas official. The police also said that Sharif had been shot before the explosion occurred.

Initial accounts said that Sharif was killed when explosives he was packing into a car for use in a probable suicide attack against Israel detonated too soon. However the Palestinian police said today that Sharif had been shot and killed before the explosion occurred.

Israel, at the time of the incident complained of a lack of cooperation by the Palestinians, even as the Palestinians were stating that it was difficult to determine whether the blast was the result of an accident during bomb preparation or whether the bomb was detonated from a distance by remote control.

Sharif was believed by Israel to have assumed a top role as a bomb expert in Hamas after the death of the so-called "engineer," Yihya Ayyash, who was killed late in 1995 in Gaza by Israel, using a cellular phone loaded with explosives.

Some said that Sharif, as a high-ranking official, would have been unlikely to be charged with the task of preparing the car for an attack and said he would have been more likely to be giving the orders.

There are suspicions that Israel is involved in Sharif's death in light of today's developments which, if true, mean that Israel's Shin Bet is active in Palestinian-controlled areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's office issued a statement denying Israeli involvement in the incident.