A Palestinian engineer held in Israel after having been reportedly abducted in the Ukraine is a high-ranking Hamas operative, the German magazine Der Spiegel quoted an intelligence source as saying on Tuesday, adding that the Gaza man may also have information concerning captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

According to foreign reports, Dirar Abu Sisi, formerly a high-ranking engineer at Gaza's electric company and power station, was abducted by Israeli security forces after boarding a train in the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv heading for Kiev, where he planned to meet a brother who has been living in Amsterdam for several years.

Open gallery view Veronika, wife of Dirar Abu Sisi, holds up her husband's picture at the Islamic Centre in Kiev in this March 11, 2011 file photograph. Credit: Reuters

Speaking with Der Speigel on Tuesday, an unnamed intelligence source said Israel considered Abu Sisi to be a "high-ranking" Hamas official, adding that "If Mossad goes to such an expense, and interrogates the man for six weeks, then he must know something Israel absolutely wants to hear."

Another source told the German magazine that it was possible that Abu Sisi was taken by Israel as a result of information he may have concerning the abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, seized in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants in June 2006.

Last Week, the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court decided to extend the remand of the Gazan engineer by seven days upon the request of the General Security Service, after Abu Sisi had already been held in Israeli prison for for 34 days.