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War on Terror

Israel?s long arm strikes Hamas in Damascus


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
September 26, 2004

Hamas and other terrorist organizations have long enjoyed the comforts and protection afforded them in Damascus by the dictatorial Syrian regime, and have utilized to the fullest their ability to direct the murder of Israel’s Jews with impunity.

For senior Hamas official Izzadin Al-Sheikh Khalil, however, the safe haven proved less than impenetrable Sunday when his vehicle, with him sitting comfortably inside, was suddenly reduced to a pile of charred wreckage on the streets of the Syrian capital.

Speaking on condition on anonymity later in the day, security sources confirmed that Israel had carried out the assassination.

Officially, however, Jerusalem said it had no knowledge of the incident.

Regardless, Hamas was adamant that Israel and its vaunted Mossad spy agency were behind the hit, and vowed in typical fashion to take revenge on Jewish men, women and children.

Another Damascus-based Hamas official, Muhammad Nazal, told reporters in Cairo that the group had taken seriously Israel’s threats following last months Beersheva bus bombings to target its leadership wherever it was found.

“It is now clear these were not only threats,” said Nazal.

Nazal said it was “inconceivable that the international community is turning a blind eye” to Israel’s “crime” of eliminating terrorists who had targeted its citizens.

While his statement smacked of absurdity for many in Israel and the US, the international community, represented by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, has regularly suggested that Israel’s war on terror is in fact terrorism itself.

Nazal was accompanying overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, who has reportedly gone underground fearing he is next on Israel’s list.

Earlier in the year, Israel succeeded in eliminating the former top two Hamas leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, in pinpoint strikes in the Gaza Strip.

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