Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed today to launch attacks inside Israel in retaliation for the killing of one of its officials in Syria.
The man was killed when an explosive charge placed under the driver's seat ripped through his SUV in the Az-Zahera neighbourhood of the Syrian capital.
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the killing was "a cowardly crime by the Zionist Mossad", referring to Israel's intelligence agency.
The blast shattered some windows in the surrounding high-rise buildings and a nearby car was also damaged in the blast.
Israeli security officials had said the military would answer twin bus bombings that killed 16 people in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on August 31st with a renewed assassination campaign against Hamas leaders in the Palestinian territories and abroad.
Israeli army chief Mr Moshe Yaalon said earlier this month Israel would "deal with ... those who support terrorism", including those in "terror command posts in Damascus".
Palestinian sources the official was believed to be in charge of Hamas's military wing outside the Palestinian territories.
"There will be a response that would be decided by the movement's leaders inside the occupied territories," a Hamas spokesman in Damascus said after the bombing.