Middle East - AP
Hamas Founder Killed in Israeli Airstrike
Date: Sun, Mar 21, 2004
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of the Hamas militant group that targeted Israelis in suicide bombings, was killed by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters as he left a mosque at daybreak Monday, witnesses said.
Tens of thousands of Gaza residents, many of them in tears, poured into the streets after Hamas announced the death of the quadriplegic Yassin over mosque loudspeakers. Masked fighters at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where Yassin's body was taken, shot into the air in rage. Angry mourners burned tires, sending black smoke over Gaza City.
Hamas, listed as a terrorist group by both the United States and Israel, vowed revenge against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites). The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group allied with Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) movement, also promised swift retaliation.
The Israeli army imposed a full closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites) after Yassin's killing, dividing Gaza into three areas, preventing movement between them.
Witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at Yassin and two bodyguards as they left the mosque, killing them instantly. He was carried around in a special car that could accommodate his wheelchair.
Four people were killed and 17 were wounded in the attack, hospital officials said.
Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit Yassin and the bodyguards.
"Their bodies were shattered," he said.
Yassin was by far the most senior Palestinian militant killed in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Since September 2000, 474 people — the majority of them Israelis — have been killed in 112 Palestinian suicide bombings, most of them carried out by Hamas.
One Israeli official recently said Yassin was "marked for death." Sharon's government has gone after militant leaders using Israeli helicopter gunships in a controversial policy that has resulted in a number of civilian casualties in addition to the deaths of senior figures in Hamas and other groups.
The army and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office declined to comment.
Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio, "I said for a long time that Yassin is a target for killing. He was not immune."
More than 150 Palestinian militants have been killed in targeted raids, according to Palestinian medical officials, though that total also includes militants killed resisting arrest.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia accused the Israelis of trying to escalate violence with the Palestinians.
"This is one of the biggest crimes that the Israeli government has committed," Qureia told The Associated Press. "Sheik Ahmed Yassin is one of the most important leaders in the Palestinian factions and Israel does know well what they had committed this morning."
Yassin was viewed as an inspirational figure by his followers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. His death could spur violent protests not only in the Palestinian areas but in the wider Arab and Islamic world, where he was well-regarded as a symbol of the Palestinian battle for independence.
In announcing Yassin's death, Hamas said, "(Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head."
Al Aqsa, a secular group responsible for dozens of attacks on Israelis, said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press, "An eye for an eye, and the retaliation will be in the coming hours, God willing."
Outside the morgue at Shifa Hospital, Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin, said, "This is the moment Sheik Yassin dreamed about. Sheik Yassin lived and died and offered his life to Palestine.
"Sheik Yassin was a hero and a fighter and the leader of a nation, and (he) is in heaven now."
Cars drove through the streets blaring calls for revenge over loudspeakers. Some aired recordings of Yassin, saying, "We chose this road, and will end with martyrdom or victory."
Mosques read passages from the Quran and two Gaza churches rang their church bells.
Yassin, who was paralyzed at age 12 in a sporting accident, founded Hamas at the start of the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, in 1987. It is an offshoot of the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which is based in Egypt.
Yassin was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1994.
U.S. officials have said their conservative estimate is that Hamas has raised several million dollars in the United States over the past decade.
In August 2003, Bush froze the financial assets of six top officials of Hamas as well as five European charities said by the administration to be sending cash to the militants. Bush took the action after Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a packed bus in Jerusalem that killed 20 people.
Yassin lived in a modest house in the rundown Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City. Israel, which blamed him for inspiring Hamas bombers and attackers who killed hundreds of Israelis, tried unsuccessfully to kill him in a September missile strike that injured 16 people.
Past Israeli governments were reluctant to target Yassin, fearing a firestorm of revenge attacks.
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