The Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday denied reports that one of its senior commanders was killed in an airstrike in Sudan earlier this week, Xinhua reported.
Ismail Al-Ashqar, a Hamas official based in Gaza, said that his nephew Riad had survived the airstrike that killed two people in Port Sudan city. The Sudanese authorities accused Israel of carrying out the missile attack.
Al-Ashqar confirmed that the raid was aimed at his nephew, who is said to be an arms dealer for the Islamic movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
One of the dead was Sudanese and the other was an Arab national whose identity is undisclosed.
Al-Ashqar is said to be the successor of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, the Hamas arms dealer who was killed in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE) in January 2010. Dubai authorities accused Israel's Mossad intelligence service of assassinating Al-Mabhouh in his hotel room.