Top Hamas leader returns from Syria to Gaza

Feb 5, 2012, 19:19 GMT

Gaza - A senior member of the Islamic Hamas movement politburo, Imad el-Alami, previously based in Syria, returned to the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Hamas sources said that he was now the final member of the Damascus-based politburo of the movement to leave Syria.

Hamas has decided to leave Syria in order not to be seen as endorsing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in his bloody crackdown against his own people.

El-Alami crossed into Gaza Sunday night through the Rafah crossing between the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave and Egypt.

Leaders and supporters of Hamas gathered at the border crossing and received him with chants and cheers.

In 1991, Israel deported el-Alami, originally from the Gaza Strip, to south Lebanon.

Three years ago, el-Alami settled in Syria, together with Khaled Mashaal, the chief of the movement's politburo. Before moving to Syria, he had been Hamas's ambassador in Tehran.

Hamas has not officially announced it was moving its headquarters from Damascus.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Gaza Hamas spokesman, told reporters that Al-Alami came to Gaza for a visit, but he refused to say how long he was going to stay.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Radio reported that el-Alami has been the contact link between Hamas militants in the West Bank and those in the Gaza Strip.

Abu Zuhri denied that there were regional guarantees for the return of el-Alami to the Gaza Strip, adding that 'a Palestinian who is coming home doesn't need guarantees.'

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