Hamas says Israel threat on exiled leaders serious

DAMASCUS, June 27 (Reuters) Exiled Hamas leaders are taking seriously Israeli threats to kill them although they were not involved in a Palestinian operation that captured an Israeli soldier, a Hamas leader in Syria said today.

''We consider the threat serious but it does not scare us,'' Mohammad Nazzal, a member of the movement's exiled leadership, told Reuters.

''Israel is trying to export its crisis by linking Hamas leadership in exile, especially Khaled Meshaal, to the operation ... the outside leadership of Hamas had nothing to do with it,'' Nazzal said.

Israeli has threatened to assassinate exiled officials of Hamas, including the group's most prominent leader Khaled Meshaal, unless a 19-year-old Israeli soldier is freed.

The Israeli soldier was captured on Sunday in an attack that included Hamas's military wing on an Israeli military position near Gaza.

Nazzal, Meshaal and several other Hamas politburo members have lived for years in Damascus. The Syrian government has resisted pressure by the United States, Israel's chief ally, to expel them and close the Muslim group's offices.

Hamas's armed wing and the other factions involved in the raid said Israel would not receive information about the soldier unless it freed all jailed Palestinian women and youths.

Israel has rejected the offer.

REUTERS SHB ND1824