Israel might strike in Syria for Beer Sheva terror responsibility

Israel has reportedly provided the United States with 'concrete evidence' of Syria's involvement in Tuesday's double suicide bombing attack, in which 16 Israelis were murdered. 'When Syria is responsible, it must of course understand that there are some quite clear results,' Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said. Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim hinted that Israel might stage military actions within Syria.

The Hamas terror organization claimed responsibility for the Beer Sheva attacks and said they were a response to Israel's 'targeted killing' of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi. The army imposed a closure on the West Bank town of Hebron and launched raids against the Hamas infrastructure there, which was directly responsible for sending the two suicide bombers on their missions.

Israeli leaders, however, blamed the Hamas command in Damascus for ordering and financing the suicide bombing attacks.

'The fact that Hamas is operating from Syria will not grant it immunity,' Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's adviser Raanan Gissin told The Associated Press yesterday. Gissin said Israel had 'hard facts' proving that the Hamas command in Damascus was behind the attacks. "