According to an announcement by Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain on late Friday, the 36-year-old Israeli was heavily armed, in the possession of a bag containing six handguns and 200 bullets. He is believed to have entered the country from the UAE on 12 March, using what authorities say was a fake French passport.

“He entered Malaysia on March 12 using a French passport, was arrested on March 27 and will be remanded until March 31 for further investigation,” Husain told reporters without naming the suspect. “During the probe, he handed us his Israeli passport.”

Husain said the police are investigating the possibility that the man could be a member of Israeli intelligence, though the suspect claimed he had entered Malaysia to look for another Israeli citizen due to a family dispute.

“However, we do not fully trust this narrative as we suspect there may be another agenda,” Husain said, adding that the detained man had moved between several hotels during his time in Malaysia.

Yesterday Reuters reported that three Malaysians, including a married couple, were arrested on Friday and have been remanded for seven days on suspicion of supplying weapons and acting as a driver to the Israeli suspect. A pistol was also retrieved from a car belonging to the couple, he said.

Malaysian authorities have been put on high alert following the man’s arrest, with security beefed up for Malaysia’s king, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other high-level figures, the agency reported, noting that the Muslim-majority country has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinians and a vocal critic of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Although the Israeli suspect remains unnamed, the Times of Israel, citing Hebrew media reported that the suspect is an Israeli mobster Shalom Avitan, who is an associate of the Musli brothers crime family. Avitan was reportedly en route to assassinate Eran Haya, head of a rival crime family. The two syndicates have been engaged in a violent feud for months.

According to Channel 12, Avitan’s home, in Tel Aviv’s upscale Bavli neighborhood, was the target of several grenades tossed by Haya’s men in mid-March, around when Haya was said to have entered Malaysia.

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