Malaysian authorities arrested a 36-year-old gunman at a hotel in the capital Kuala Lumpur, the Southeast Asian country’s police chief said, adding that there are suspicions that he is an Israeli spy.

The man, who was found to be in possession of six guns and 200 rounds of ammunition, arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from the United Arab Emirates on March 12 using a French passport that authorities believe may be fake, Inspector General of Police Hussain explained. Razaruddin during a press conference last Friday night.

He handed over an Israeli passport to authorities during his interrogation, Inspector General Razaruddin added.

Mr. Razaruddin also said that the police were trying to ascertain whether the man belonged to Israeli espionage. The man told authorities he went to Malaysia to stalk another Israeli citizen because of a family dispute.

“We don’t completely believe this narrative, we suspect that he may have had other purposes,” Hussein Razaruddin emphasized, noting that the arrested man changed hotels several times during his stay in Malaysia.

The purpose of the police investigation is to determine exactly how the suspect obtained the weapons. He bought them in Malaysia, paying with cryptocurrency, according to the first investigation evidence released by Mr. Razaruddin.

Authorities have increased their level of vigilance after the arrest and security measures have been stepped up for the king, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other important figures, he said.

Malaysia, a country with a majority Muslim population, strongly supports the Palestinians and has repeatedly condemned the actions of the Israeli army during the war in the Gaza Strip. The country, which does not have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, hosts about 600 Palestinian refugees, according to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

In 2018, a Palestinian scientist was murdered in the Malaysian capital by two unknown assailants, an act that the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claimed at the time to have been carried out by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. Israeli authorities denied this.