An Israeli Mossad agent living in Canada was secretly provided a new identity and passport by the government, a Canadian-Iranian businessman alleged in an interview, the Canoe website reported Saturday.

Arian Azarbar says the Israeli spy was granted the new identity after participating in the 2010 plot to kill Hamas terrorist leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel. Al Mabhouh, part of the military wing of Hamas, was wanted by the Israeli government for the kidnap and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989.

Al-Mabhouh was killed on January 19, 2010 when a team of assassins broke into his hotel room and killed him silently, leaving a 'do not disturb' sign on the door. The hotel security cameras caught images of the alleged killers sharing an elevator ride with Mabhouh prior to the assassination.

On the basis of the video clips and the information provided by Dubai police officers investigating the murder at the time, the assassination squad involved 10 men carrying British, French, German and Irish passports. A woman carrying an Irish passport was also captured by the cameras.

The Dubai authorities claimed there were two teams: one carried out surveillance of the target, while the other - which appears to be a group of younger men, at least as far as the camera shots show - carried out the killing.

It later became clear that Israeli Mossad agents used fake British passports in in the operation.