Syria has ordered the leaders of two Palestinian groups to leave the country, the Telegraph reported Sunday. Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, and Ramadan Shallah, the head of the Islamic Jihad, which was behind a recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, have been "forced" to move from Syria to other Arab countries.
"They have gone, and they have told me that they have gone," Khaled Fahum, the veteran head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in Damascus, told the British paper.
Meshaal had left for Qatar, while Shallah was being sheltered by Hizbullah in Lebanon, he said. "The government has closed their offices, cut off their phones and shut down their email," said Fahum. "I know this from both sides."
Israel has presented foreign diplomats with a transcript of an intercepted call allegedly made by Shallah to an Islamic Jihad cell on the West Bank authorising the Tel Aviv attack, which killed five Israelis, The Telegraph added.
