Report: Israel Planned to Hit Hamas Leadership in Syria During Gaza War

Middle East Times, January 30, 2009 - An Israeli plan to launch an airstrike against a Palestinian camp in Syria during its recent invasion of Gaza was vetoed by the Bush administration using pressure from allies like Egypt and Turkey, according to administration officials.

"There was zip support for expanding the war," one State Department official said.

The targeted was the Hamas camp in the town of Yarmouk, Syria, some 15 kilometers east of Damascus, where Hamas opened an office in 1991 and which quickly became the operational nerve center for the group's military wing, these sources said.

More than a dozen senior Hamas leaders were to attend a meeting at the refugee camp, and the Israeli strike was designed to decapitate the group's top leadership at a single stroke including Khaled Meshaal, chief of the movement's political bureau, these sources said.....