Following the assassination of a leading figure in Damascus, Hamas threatens Israeli interests abroad

Ezz Eddine al-Qassam group; the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement (Hamas), threatened to target the Israeli interests abroad following the assassination of the leading figure in the movement Ezz Eddine Subhi al-Sheikh by blowing up his car in Damascus.

A statement by the group said that the "Israeli enemy was the one who opened a new door for conflict by transferring the battle outside Palestine; despite the fact that al Qassam groups has been careful to keep its guns directed to the entity in the areas of occupation inside Palestine."

The statement explained that it had left alone "thousands of Zionists moving in the capitals of the world in order that not to be the first to transfer the conflict;" noting that Israel is the one which started that and it has to bear the consequences of its acts.

However; Hamas representative in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, denied in a statement to al Jazeera that his movement has so far decided to attack Israeli targets abroad.

The Israeli general security minister Jadoun Ezra expressed his happiness over the assassination of Khalil but denied to have known anything about the operation. Meantime; the Syrian ministry of the interior announced it opened an investigation to know the implications of the incident which took place in front of Khalil's house in al-Zahera quarters in Damascus. The incident also resulted in injuring three persons near the site of the incident. The Syrian ministry also denied that Khalil to have had any activity inside the Syrian territories.

Khalil was killed after a bomb explosion implanted under the driver seat in his car. Witnesses said that the explosion took place when Khalil started the car engine.

Should it be proved that Israel is behind the attack; then it will be a unique Israeli attack inside the Syrian territories: In October 2003 Israel bombarded what was described as a camp for training the Palestinians near Damascus following a Palestinian operation in Israel.

Worthy mentioning that Ezz Eddine Khalil was born in Gaza in 1962 and has a BA in origin of religions; He is survived by two children. The Israeli occupation forces expelled him to Marj al Zouhour in Lebanon during the first Palestinian Intifada in 1992, but he did not returned back with those who had returned later because of what described by the spokesman of the movement as security reasons; giving no further details.