Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

    GAZA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The external Israeli security intelligence service, better know as Mosad, has failed to assassinate Damascus-based Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, sources in the movement revealed Wednesday.

    The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, were quoted bya Palestinian independent news agency as saying that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) knew about the Israeli attempt to kill Meshaal through a Western intelligence security service.

    They added that several Mosad agents arrived in Damascus in mid-July during the Israeli military offensives on Lebanon, disguising as foreign relief volunteers in a bid to assassinate Meshaal.

    The sources, however, didn't say if the Mosad agents were discovered or arrested by the Syrians or if they are still in Syria or they had left.

    Meshaal escaped an assassination in Jordan in 1997, but survived after Israel asked Jordan to exchange two Mosad agents detained in Amman for curing Meshaal and releasing late Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

    After Hamas was responsible for kidnapping an Israeli soldier in Gaza on June 25, Israel accused Meshaal for being behind the attack and threatened to kill him and other Hamas politburo members.

    During the Israeli war on Hezbollah, Israeli jets bombarded the houses of Mohamed Nazzal and Osama Hamdan in southern Lebanon, senior Hamas leaders based in Lebanon, said the sources.

    The two Hamas leaders were not at home when their houses were destroyed by Israeli jets, said the sources, adding that every Hamas leader abroad is carefully moving both in Lebanon and Syria. Enditem