The memorial for Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in this northern Gaza town late Wednesday was meant to boost morale and project strength, after his swift death in a Dubai hotel room last month exposed Hamas’ vulnerability.

Key Hamas leaders have been killed by Israel over the years, including in targeted missile strikes in Gaza.

The assassination of al Mabhouh, who was suspected of funneling weapons from Iran to Hamas-ruled Gaza, also had repercussions for Israel after Dubai police released photos of 11 suspected assassins who carried European passports.

Names on the passports matched seven people living in Israel, raising the possibility that Israel’s Mossad spy agency stole the identities of its own citizens to carry out the hit.

British, Irish and German passports were among those used.

In the first diplomatic fallout, the Israeli ambassadors to Britain and Ireland were summoned to talks by their host governments on Thursday.

Britain said it would investigate how the passports could have been forged.

Ireland’s foreign minister said he was still trying to determine whether three Irish passports used in the operation had been lost or stolen recently.

Israel has offered only a vague comment by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that neither confirmed nor denied Mossad’s involvement.

A possible Mossad foul-up could balloon into a bigger scandal and cause political problems for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with some already calling for the ouster of Mossad chief Meir Dagan.

During Netanyahu’s first term, in the 1990s, the Mossad botched the assassination of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, now the group’s supreme chief.

Israel’s leading Haaretz daily wrote in an editorial Thursday that if the Mossad was indeed responsible, “what at first seemed like a ‘clean’ operation turned out to be wracked by negligent mishaps.” Hamas has blamed the Mossad since al-Mabhouh’s body was found Jan.

20 in a luxury hotel near Dubai’s airport.

Speaking to the Gaza rally by phone from Damascus, Mashaal said the time has come for revenge.

The assassination “paves the way for capturing (Israeli) soldiers until we free all our prisoners from (Israeli) prisons.” He also urged European countries to remove Hamas from the list of terror groups, saying “Israel is the real terrorist.” The memorial attempted to turn the little known al- Mabhouh, who left Gaza in 1989, into an almost mythical hero.

A large portrait of him, adorned with red roses, stood in front of the stage, next to a large Israeli flag spread out on the ground, like a carpet.

At one point, uniformed Hamas fighters masked with red-and-white checkered scarves marched on the flag, carrying a wreath toward the al-Mabhouh portrait in amock burial.

Other Hamas fighters unfurled a four-story-tall al Mabhouh portrait, rappelling down the facade of a high-rise building next to the rally site, a sandy lot in Beit Lahiya.

They also held up photos of four Israeli soldiers slain by Hamas, including two by al Mabhouh, and the portrait of a fifth, Sgt Gilad Schalit, who has been held in Gaza by Hamas-linked militants since 2006.

The Hamas military wing, of which the 49-year-old al Mabhouh was a founding member, pledged revenge attacks against Israel.

“Today, you hear our words, and tomorrow, you will see fire and bullets and deeds,” said the group’s spokesman, known only by his nom de guerre, Abu Obeida.

However, Hamas has largely observed a tactical cease-fire since Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza last winter, and it was not clear whether the Islamists would risk a new confrontation.

The fiery rhetoric appeared largely aimed at Hamas loyalists, since Hamas has not resumed rocket fire on Israel in the month since the assassination.

At the same time, the arrest of two suspected Palestinian accomplices in Dubai set off new blame-trading between Hamas and its Palestinian rival, the Western-backed government of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

West Bank officials have said one was a former Hamas major from Gaza, implying Hamas was involved in the hit.

However, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said Wednesday that the two are former members of Abbas’ security forces in Gaza who fled when Hamas seized the territory in 2007.