Hamas keeps identity of new leader secret

AFTER Israel’s assassination of two of its leaders in less than a month, Hamas has decided to keep the identity of its new supremo in the Palestinian territories a secret.

Even before the body of Abdel Aziz Rantissi had been laid to rest, the radical Islamist movement announced it had filled the vacuum left by Dr Al Rantissi’s death in a helicopter strike which came almost four weeks after the movement’s spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin met a similar fate.

But in a nod to the power of the movement’s Damascus-based politburo chief, Hamas said “after the call of Khaled Meshaal we have decided not the name of Dr Al Rantissi’s successor”.