Confusion over Hamas threat
Confusion surrounds a Hamas threat to target Israelis abroad following Sunday’s assassination of one of the group’s officials in Damascus.
In a statement received by Aljazeera on Sunday, the armed wing of the biggest Palestinian resistance group said:
“We have let hundreds of thousands of Zionists travel and move in capitals of the world in order not to be the party which transfers the struggle,” said the statement issued by Izz al-Din al-Qassam
“But the Zionist enemy has done so and should bear the consequences of its actions.
“The Zionist enemy has opened a new door for the struggle by transferring the battle outside Palestine, in spite of the fact that al-Qassam Brigades has always been keen to keep its rifles directed against the entity in the land they occupy,” it said.
However, a Hamas political representative in Lebanon denied that the group had taken a decision to attack Israeli targets abroad.
He and a spokesman in Damascus said Hamas would launch attacks only inside Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Hamas has always maintained that its policy was not to attack Israeli targets overseas.