Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas military commander in Dubai, an official in the Islamist group has claimed.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who played a major role in a Palestinian uprising in the 1980s, died on 20 January, Izzat al-Rishq told Reuters in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The death of the 50-year-old lengthens Hamas' list of what it describes as 'martyrs' and constitutes another setback for the group, which refuses to abandon its fight against the Jewish state of Israel.
Israeli officials made no immediate comment, while a diplomat in Damascus said it was too early to say if Mr Mabhouh's past was linked to his death.
'I cannot reveal the circumstances (of the death). We are working with the authorities in the United Arab Emirates,' said Mr Rishq, who is a member of Hamas's politburo.
He said Mr Mabhouh was an 'important' member of Izz el-Deen al- Qassam brigades, Hamas' military wing named after a Syrian religious leader who fought British colonial forces in Palestine in the 1930s.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was born in Gaza but had been living in Syria since 1989, died a day after arriving in Dubai.
Another Palestinian source said he was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai without any injuries to his body.
