Hamas leader killed in Israeli air strike

Israeli forces killed Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the violent Hamas movement, in a missile attack in Gaza early today, an attack that is expected to to escalate Palestinian-Israeli violence dramatically.

Yassin was revered throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Hamas threatened bloody revenge.

Masked fighters at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where Yassin’s body was taken, shot into the air in rage and tens of thousands of Gaza residents rushed into the streets, many of them in tears.

“Words cannot describe the emotion of anger and hate inside our hearts,” said Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin.

Hundreds of gunmen were among the protesters, and children burning tyres sent black smoke into the air. 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.

The wheelchair-bound Yassin was hit as he left a mosque near his house at daybreak today, witnesses said. Israeli helicopters fired three missiles, and Yassin and three other people were killed instantly.

Israel had previously tried to kill Yassin in September when a warplane dropped a bomb on a building where he and other Hamas leaders were meeting, but Yassin escaped with just a small wound to his hand.

One Israeli official recently said Yassin, a Hamas founder, was “marked for death”.

The army and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office declined to comment. But Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim confirmed the attack on Israel Radio.

“I said for a long time that Yassin is a target for killing. He was not immune,” Boim said. “We know that terror is a continuous war. It requires large and determined forces, and we will continue it.”

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned the killing.

“Assassinations, incursions, walls, will not produce peace and security. On the contrary, it will just add fuel to the fire,” he said.

Witnesses said the Israeli helicopter strike instantly killed Yassin and two bodyguards. Hospital officials said four people were killed and 17 wounded, two critically.

Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit and kill 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. Thousands of angry Palestinians gathered around his home minutes after the attack, calling for revenge against Israel.

Announcing Yassin’s death over mosque loudspeakers, the Hamas leadership said: “Sharon has opened the gates of hell. And nothing will stop us from cutting off his head,” referring to the Israeli Prime Minister.

Outside the morgue at Shifa Hospital, Haniyeh, a close associated of Yassin, had tears in his eyes as he confirmed Yassin’s death and pledged revenge.

“This is the moment Sheik Yassin dreamed about,” Haniyeh said. “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.”

After the attack, Ambulances and fire trucks raced to the scene, sirens wailing, and rescue workers were gathering up parts of the shattered bodies.

Yassin, a quadriplegic, founded Hamas in 1987. He was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1994.

He lived in a modest house in the rundown Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Though he was limited in his movements, and Israel blamed him for inspiring Hamas bombers and attackers who killed hundreds of Israelis, Israeli governments had until now refrained from targeting him, fearing a firestorm of revenge attacks.