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The ‘tennis players’ got into the lift with Mahmud al-Mabhuh and followed him to room 230

Two of the assassins arrive at Mr Mabhouh’s hotel room door

A woman named as Gail Foliard, wearing a black wig over her blonde hair, seen on hotel CCTV at the time of the killing

The other suspects wanted in connection with the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, clockwise from top left: Michael Lawrence Barney, James Leonard Clarke, Stephen Daniel Hodes, Paul John Keeley, Melvyn Adam Mildiner Photo: AP

The Foreign Office was investigating how the identities of six innocent Britons — at least three of whom lived in Israel — came to be used by the alleged hit team.

Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, blamed Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, for the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found dead in a hotel room in Dubai last month.

Israel refused to comment on claims that the 11-strong hit squad were its agents, but any admission that it was behind the assassination would threaten Britain’s fragile intelligence-sharing agreement with Mossad.

As police in Dubai released CCTV footage of the suspects, some of the Britons whose identities were stolen voiced their anger after waking up to discover that they had been named in the plot.

“I have not left Israel for two years and I certainly have not been to Dubai recently,” said Kent-born Paul Keeley, 42, a builder who has lived on a Kibbutz in northern Israel for the past 15 years.

“When I first heard about this I immediately looked to make sure my passport was still there and it was. It has not been stolen, so I don’t know what on earth has happened.

“I woke up this morning and suddenly my life is like an espionage movie. It is all very worrying but I know I have not done anything wrong.”

Mr Keeley’s mother, Joan, of Yalding, near Maidstone, said the picture released by the Dubai police of a suspect named as “Paul Keeley” was similar to her son, suggesting that his identity had been used because of his resemblance to the alleged assassin.

Police in Dubai circulated photographs of the suspects, who used six British passports, three Irish, one German and one French.

The Foreign Office said the British passports were “fraudulent”, while the Irish foreign ministry said it had issued “no such passports” in the names used. A spokesman for the government in Berlin said the passport number on the German document was also fake.

Another of the suspects named in Dubai was Harrow-born Melvyn Mildiner, 31, who lives near Jerusalem, and who said he was “angry, upset and scared” to discover that his passport had been forged.

“It’s not me, which is one silver lining to this entire story because at least I can point to it and say, ‘Look, that’s not me.’ It’s not the picture that I have in my passport and it’s not the picture that I have on my face that I walk around with every day,” he said.

“I have my passport. It’s in my house, and there are no Dubai stamps on it because I’ve never been to Dubai.”

Mr Mildiner, who bears a resemblance to the picture on the forged passport used by the alleged assassin, added: “I don’t know how this happened or who chose my name or why, but hopefully we’ll find out soon.”

The other Britons named in Dubai were Salford-born Stephen Hodes, 37, who works as a physiotherapist at a hospital in Jerusalem; Michael Lawrence Barney, 55, originally of north London, who is also understood to live in Israel; Jonathan Louis Graham, 31, of north London; and James Leonard Clarke, 47, who until recently lived in Brighton.

Britain’s intelligence-sharing agreement with Israel has become increasingly important since the September 11 attacks and in the light of Iran’s desire to develop nuclear weapons.

But it has a chequered history: Margaret Thatcher closed the Mossad operation in Britain in 1987 after it mounted an operation in London to kidnap Mordechai Vanunu, the whistle-blower who revealed secrets about Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

Mossad hit squads were known to have used forged foreign passports. Canada and New Zealand have both had disputes with Israel in recent years over suspected Mossad agents trying to use forged passports on operations.