The Hamas Movement accused Israel on Sunday of trying to assassinate one of its staff members in the city of Sidon, southern Lebanon, causing injuries to his legs.
"Preliminary investigations seem to point to a Zionist involvement in this attack," Hamas media bureau said in a statement released on Sunday afternoon.
Mohammad Hamdan was injured Sunday in a booby-trapped car explosion in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Army and media reports.
Following the incident, the movement said, "Mohammad Hamdan was a staff member from the Palestinian Hamas Movement in Sidon and a refugee living in Lebanon."
The statement added that Hamdan was hurt in his leg in the blast, while his car was destroyed and material damage was inflicted on a nearby building.
"Lebanese security agencies are following up on the bombing," the Movement concluded.
Hamdan was not one of Hamas’ known members in Lebanon; however, “Hezbollah’s” Al Manar television described him on Sunday as “a leading official at the Movement.”
The television channel then reported that Hamdan played a leading security role at Hamas, adding that Israel was tracing him.
Jihad Taha, Hamas deputy political official in Lebanon, said: “Hamdan is a member of the movement, and he works at the office of its political official in Lebanon, Ahmad Abdul Hadi.”
Taha added that the “Israeli enemy was responsible for targeting Hamdan.”
A leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement in Lebanon said Hamdan was involved in operations in Israel. "The incident has Israeli fingerprints," Mounir al-Maqdah, the Fatah official, told Reuters.
A military source told AFP on Sunday that a BMW "detonated, wounding Hamas official Mohammed Hamdan.”
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that the silver BMW belonged to Hamdan, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Hamzah.
