Exiled Hamas leaders are taking seriously Israeli threats to kill them as tensions today continued to rise over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants on Sunday.
Tanks and troops continued gathering on the northern Gaza border today after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday ordered a mass deployment for an offensive he said would entail "all necessary measures" to retrieve the kidnapped soldier.
Mohammad Nazzel
He also warned that Palestinian militants not involved in a the kidnapping - including those in exile in Syria - would be assassinated.
Mohammad Nazzal, one of those likely to be targeted said from Damascus that he took the threat seriously.
"Israel is trying to export its crisis by linking Hamas leadership in exile, especially Khaled Meshaal [the group's most prominent exile], to the operation . . . the outside leadership of Hamas had nothing to do with it," Mr Nazzal said.
Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured on Sunday in an incursion into Israel by eight raiders including members of Hamas's military wing.
Two soldiers died and another was seriously wounded when the raiders emerged from a secret tunnel at an Israeli military position on the Gaza border.
The abductors have offered information on Cpl Shalit in exchange for the release of all jailed Palestinian women and children. Israel has rejected the offer.
"They have to understand one thing, that nobody is immune, including Khaled Meshaal," cabinet minister and former general Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said.
Militant groups said Sunday's raid was in response to the killing of 14 Palestinian civilians in Israeli air strikes in Gaza against militants behind cross-border rocket attacks.
Some defence commentators said it would take another day or two until enough Israeli forces were in place for an invasion. Others have said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could not rush for fear militants would kill the soldier but that waiting too long would make his government appear weak.