Israel supermarket chain uses Dubai killing in ad campaign

PETAH TIKVA, Israel (AFP) - An Israeli supermarket chain is using the alleged assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai by a hit squad from the Mossad intelligence agency as the basis of a marketing campaign.

The Almost Free Warehouse chain shot the television advertisment on Wednesday under the slogan: "Eliminate the prices."

A man dressed in a tennis outfit and a woman wearing large sunglasses and wide hat -- mirroring surveillance images of the murder suspects released by Dubai police -- are seen through the supermarket security cameras surreptitiously slipping products into their shopping trolley.

Advertising executive Sefi Shaked dismissed any accusation of bad taste, saying that the firm hoped to capitalise on the huge amount of media attention generated by the Dubai killing.

"It's a parody, a take-off of what happened in Dubai. All the Israeli television comedy shows have done it, so why shouldn't we?" he told AFP.

Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a founder of the military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza, was found dead in his room in the Al Bustan Rotana hotel near Dubai airport on January 20.

Dubai police have released extensive surveillance camera footage they say shows the team of 27 suspects from the hit squad they have linked to the Mossad. The Hamas man had been drugged and then suffocated.

International police agency Interpol issued arrest notices on Monday for a further 16 suspects wanted by Dubai in connection with the killing, on top of 11 already issued.

Israeli officials have refused to confirm or deny the reports of Mossad involvement.

But the Israeli media have been in no doubt that it was the work of the intelligence agency, and the probe has caused a diplomatic headache for the Jewish state amid revelations of the apparent abuse of European and Australian passports in the hit.