DAMASCUS (AFP) - A founding member of Hamas was killed in a car bombing in the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday in an attack blamed on Israel by the hardline Palestinian movement which vowed to wreak a bloody revenge.
In Gaza, the armed wing of Hamas threatened to strike Israeli targets abroad to avenge the killing of Ezzedine Sheikh Khalil, but a politburo member in Beirut denied the leadership had decided to "take the fight out of Palestine."
Israel has threatened to strike Hamas militants at home and abroad, including the Syrian capital where a number of the movement's senior officials are based, but officials in Jerusalem denied knowledge of the car bombing.
The attack came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented his cabinet with the final draft of his controversial Gaza pullout plan and vowed to intensify action to stop Hamas firing makeshift rockets from the territory.
Hamas blamed the killing of Khalil on Israel's Mossad spy agency, which famously botched an attempt to kill a Hamas leader in Amman in 1997.
A senior source close to Sharon said he had "no information about this (Damascus) incident" other than through media reports, while the Israeli army also denied knowledge of the strike.
But Hamas said it was clear who was behind the killing of Khalil, one of the group's founders who was among 400 militants expelled by Israel to Lebanon in 1992 during the last intifada.
"This ugly Zionist crime targetting leaders outside shows Israel is trying to export the crisis and to drag the whole region into the inferno," said Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for Hamas in Gaza.
And in a statement in Gaza, Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades warned: "The Zionist enemy opened the door for the battle to move outside Palestine."
But Mohamad Nazzal, a Hamas politburo member in Beiurt, denied that the movement's leadership had decided to strike Israeli interests abroad.
"Until today, the issue of carrying the fight outside Palestine is under study and no decision has been taken in that direction," he told AFP.
Israel has carried out scores of what it calls "targeted killings" of militants since the outbreak of the latest intifada in September 2000.
In one of its biggest strikes, Israel earlier this month killed 15 members of Hamas' military wing shortly after a double suicide bombing in the southern city of Beersheva which left 16 Israelis dead, as well as the two Hamas bombers.
In the wake of the raid, Israel warned its campaign against Hamas would reach all the way to the movement's Syrian-based leadership.
And the Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal, who emerged as overall Hamas leader after Israel assassinated two other top figures earlier this year, is thought to be top of the list of Israel's targets.
Mossad made a failed attempt on the life of Meshaal, the Hamas politburo chief, in Amman in 1997.
The United States has also accused Damascus of backing what it calls Palestinian "terrorist groups" and earlier this year imposed sanctions of Syria, which denies the charge.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat condemned the blast.
"Taking the assassinations overseas means broadening the field of conflict," he told AFP. "We condemn this crime and repeat that violence can only bring about violence."
Israel claims that Hamas' strategic planning is now almost totally conducted in Damascus, although a handful of autonomous cells still exist in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel has in the past shown itself more than willing to strike at targets in Syria, with the air force carrying out a raid on a Palestinian training base deep in Syrian territory last October, which it claimed was being used by Hamas.
Meanwhile, Sharon presented cabinet ministers with a draft bill outlining his so-called disengagement plan.
The 89-page document, which was also made available to the public on the justice ministry's website, outlines the principles of the plan, which envisages a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and from four other isolated enclaves in the West Bank by the end of 2005.
On September 14, members of the security cabinet approved a compensation package for Jewish settlers who will be uprooted from their homes. Sharon expects the full cabinet to vote on final version of the plan on October 24 before parliament has its say on November 3.
Sharon also vowed at the cabinet meeting vowed to step up the fight against militants in Gaza who fire mortar shells and Qassam rockets -- named after the Hamas military wing -- at Israeli targets.
In Gaza, over 80 Palestinian policemen who were due to attend security training sessions in Egypt in preparation for the withdrawal, were barred from leaving through the Rafah border crossing.
Israeli military sources said all border crossings had been halted since September 16 due to the Jewish holidays.