DAMASCUS (AFP) - A founding member of Hamas was killed in a car bombing in the Syrian capital in an attack blamed on Israel by Damascus and 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 Ezzedin 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, with officials in Jerusalem privately confirming to the Israeli media they were behind 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.
Israeli defence ministry officials cited by the privately run Channel Two television confirmed that Israeli agents were behind the explosion.
"Officials we have contacted confirm it privately but not publicly," the television said.
The chairman of parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, Yuval Steinitz, refused to accept or deny Israel's responsibility.
"But the principle must be very clear. Our duty, not only our right, is to kill those who try to kill us."
Hamas said it had no doubt Israel 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 targeting 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 Ezzedin 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 Beirut, 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.
Syrian authorities also blamed Israel for the killing, warning that it bore responsibility for the consequences of the "terrorist" act.
"Israel is showing its intentions to destabilise the region and weaken security at a time when regional and international efforts are deployed to lessen tensions in the Middle East," said an official cited by the state SANA news agency.
Israel has carried out scores of what it calls "targeted killings" of militants since the outbreak of the latest intifada in September 2000.
In the wake of a raid earlier this month that killed 15 members of Hamas's military wing, Israel warned its campaign against the group would reach all the way to its 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 top the Jewish state's most-wanted list.
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 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 target deep inside Syrian territory last October, which it claimed was a training base being used by Hamas.
Meanwhile, Sharon presented cabinet ministers with a draft bill outlining his so-called disengagement plan.
The document 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.
Sharon expects the full cabinet to vote on final version of the plan on October 24 before parliament has its say on November 3.
In Gaza, more than 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, along with 200 Palestinian trainee police officers.
Israeli authorities said that those blocked had made no request to military authorities to be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip.
Israeli military sources said all border crossings had been halted since September 16 due to the Jewish holidays.