One bit of information that hasn’t come out yet is that Hilik Magnus, who led the private Israeli search and rescue team which arrived in Christchurch shortly after the February 22 quake had previously worked for Israeli intelligence.

It isn’t a state secret – although whether he is currently working for Mossad may be. Mr Magnus says on his website that he has “served in the Israeli Defence Force in an elite paratrooper battalion specialising in special operations. …and served also in the intelligence community.”

Of course, that doesn’t prove that Mossad was involved in sending the team out here, but it is an important piece of information as we try to work out what really happened.

The Press reports that Hilik’s team was not entirely excluded from CBD. It was allowed inside the cordon to a backpackers to retrieve the personal effects of Gabi Ingel and his companion Ofer Levy.

The New Zealand government needs to give us a more details about what it knows about Hilik’s SAR team.

Keith Locke's column was firs tpublished on Frogbog

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