Israeli Minister Yisrael Katz threatens to target Hamas leaders

Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yisrael Katz on Sunday threatened to target Hamas leaders if the Palestinian group carried out attacks against Israeli targets abroad.

The threat came one day after a Hamas-linked Palestinian lecturer, Fadi Mohammed al-Batsh, was shot dead near his home in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

While offering condolence al-Batsh's family in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israel's spy agency Mossad has "moved the battle outside the occupied lands".

"I suggest Haniyeh to talk less and be more careful," Katz said in an interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

"Gaza is much closer than Malaysia," he said, pointing out that Israel would resume its targeted killing policy against Palestinian resistance leaders, including Haniyeh himself.

"Israel knows how to locate and hurt those Hamas officials who are directing" attacks against Israelis abroad, Katz said.

"Haniyeh and his friends should be careful before they talk ... because Israel's ability to hurt them will be absolute, hard and swift," he said.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied involvement in al-Batsh's killing in Malaysia.

Israel is widely believed to have killed numerous Palestinian resistance activists in the past, many of them overseas.

In 1997, Mossad agents tried -- and failed -- to kill Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal in Jordan by spraying poison into his ear.

Mossad is also believed to have been behind the assassination in 2010 of top Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh in a Dubai hotel.

Israel has never confirmed or denied its involvement in Mabhuh's murder.