Hamas leader was 'brilliant and brutal'

Described by Israel as the Gaza Strip’s ‘‘most brilliant and brutal terrorist,’’ Salah Shehadeh spent more than a decade in Israeli and Palestinian jails, and for the last three years was often in hiding as he oversaw Hamas’ frequent attacks.

The bearded Shehadeh, 48, was killed when an Israeli warplane destroyed the Gaza City apartment where he was staying, taking the lives of 14 other Palestinians, most of them children.