Hamas man escapes attack in Damascus

DAMASCUS: A bomb blew up in a car owned by a Palestinian in a crowded district of Damascus on Monday and a Palestinian source in Beirut said the blast was an attempt to kill a member of the militant Hamas group.

The Palestinian source said the Hamas member who was not identified, escaped unhurt. It was the second such attack against Hamas members in Syria in less than three months.

“This is the second incident in which an explosion targets a Hamas member,” the Palestinian source in Lebanon said. He said the bomb, placed under the driver’s seat, blew up shortly after the unnamed member and his daughter had parked the car and left it.

The official Syrian news agency SANA confirmed the car belonged to a Palestinian but gave no details on who he was. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the blast.

Meanwhile, Ihssan Shawahneh, a Hamas leader, was gunned down and three Israeli soldiers were injured in a shootout near Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian security sources said. Majed Abu Salem, an Islamic Jihad member, was also killed in a mystery explosion in his house in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli helicopter gunships fired rockets into Gaza City early in the day in a swift response to an attack on an Israeli army post on Sunday. agencies

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