Syrians gathering near the site of the blast

Additional Reporting By Salwa Al-Astawani, IOL Correspondent

DAMASCUS, December 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Syria said on Tuesday, December 14, that the failed assassination attempt on the life of a Hamas activist on a Syrian territory a day earlier proved that "terrorist" Israel was not ready for peace.

"It's a new signal showing that peace does not figure on Israel's agenda," Syrian Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah told Agence France Presse (AFP).

A booby-trapped car went off Monday in Al-Mazzah residential neighborhood in the Syrian capital, targeting a Hamas member.

The Hamas activist escaped unscathed after he left the car with his family members moments before the blast.

Syrian officials were quick to accuse Israel of standing behind the bombing, which slightly injured three by-standers.

In statements to IslamOnline.net, Dakhlallah emphatically pointed the finger at Israel. 

Interior Minister Khazi Kanaan further echoed Dakhlallah’s accusations.

"The group who carried out this act deals with Mossad, or perhaps it is Mossad itself," Kanaan was quoted as saying by the official SANA news agency.

Last September, Syria further accused Israel of assassinating Hamas activist Ezzeddin Al-Sheikh Khalil by a car bomb in Al-Hakleh district in southern Damascus.

It was the first Israeli attack on Syrian soil in three decades.  

“Terrorist War”

Dakhlallah said the blast is part of the Israeli "terrorist war" led against Palestinian civilians and Arabs in general.

Syria has recently offered to resume peace talks with Israel "without conditions", but the Israeli government rebuffed the offer as a mere propaganda meant to ease US pressures on Damascus.

Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the area in 1981.

The area is a grassy plateau overlooking north-eastern Israel and south-east Syria and have important water resources - providing  Israel with a third of its water needs.

The United States accuses Syria  of harboring “terrorists,” developing weapons of mass destruction, and allowing foreign fighters into Iraq through its borders.

Two months later, US President George W. Bush signed into law the Syria Accountability bill which allows economic and diplomatic sanctions  on the Arab country.