The assassination of a leading Hamas commander in Dubai is being firmly linked to the Israeli secret service, Mossad, who attempted a similar assassination attempt on Khaled Meshal, chairman of Hamas' political bureau, in Amman in 1997.

Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen described the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on Mr Meshal.

Yossi Melman, an intelligence and military affairs correspondent for leading Israeli newspaper Daily Haaretz, considered whether assassination attempts are justified.

"There is no great enthusiasm among military and intelligences professionals to use assassinations." But, he added, "not acting against Hamas would be a sign of weakness....once in a while in order to respond you take a calculated risk and resort to these operations."