In Syria, Hamas in hiding

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | Newsday Middle East Correspondent

July 4, 2006

DAMASCUS, Syria - Fearful of Israeli assassination, the top Hamas leaders who operate out of Syria are living on the run.

They change safe houses almost every night and no longer appear in public. They have canceled all travel outside Syria and stopped using cell phones. Khaled Meshaal - the head of Hamas' political bureau and the man Israel accuses of thwarting the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier in Gaza - is taking unprecedented security precautions, according to a Palestinian official in Damascus.

Meshaal, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1997, already had strict security, traveling in armored cars and rarely appearing in public. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Meshaal is taking threats from Israeli officials seriously.

"The Hamas leadership realizes that it could be targeted," the official said. "It is taking all the precautions that can be taken."

The Syrian regime has allowed leaders of Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups that reject peace with Israel to operate from Damascus for two decades. Under international pressure in 2004, Syria forced Hamas and Islamic Jihad to close their offices in Damascus. But the group's leaders still operate freely in the Syrian capital, and they frequently meet with top Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad.

Israeli leaders warned the Syrian regime again yesterday that it could be targeted if the abducted soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, is killed.

"We know how to strike those who are involved," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said. "I suggest that Bashar Assad, who is trying to operate with his eyes shut tight, open his eyes, because he is responsible."

Last week, Israeli planes buzzed Assad's summer home in the coastal city of Latakia, the first Israeli incursion into Syrian airspace in three years. The incident embarrassed Syria and highlighted Israel's far superior military capabilities.

While Israeli officials often blame Syria for Palestinian attacks inside Israel, they sometimes follow through on their threats to retaliate. In October 2003, an Israeli plane bombed an alleged Islamic Jihad training camp near Damascus, after the group carried out a suicide bombing that killed 19 Israelis. It was the first Israeli attack on Syrian soil in three decades.

In September 2004, a Hamas commander named Izz Eldine Subhi Sheik Khalil was killed in a car bombing in Damascus. The assassination was widely blamed on the Mossad, Israel's spy agency. After Khalil's killing - the first of a Hamas operative inside Syria - the group's leaders took more precautions and the Syrian secret police became more involved in their protection. Most major decisions within Hamas are made by its political bureau, which has eight to 10 members.

In 1997, while Meshaal was living in Jordan, two Mossad agents injected him with poison. But they were quickly caught by Jordanian intelligence. While Meshaal lay in a Jordanian hospital, King Hussein forced Israel to provide the antidote and to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Mossad agents.

Since the crisis over the kidnapped soldier escalated last week, the leaders of other Palestinian factions in Syria also went underground. "Everyone is worried," the official said.

"Because if the Israelis can't reach the Hamas leadership, they might target others."