We'll kill more terror leaders, vows Israel

Israel has defied world condemnation of the assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, vowing to continue targeted attacks on terror group leaders.

“The war against terror has not ended and will continue day after day, everywhere,” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said.

Meanwhile Israeli tanks moved into northern Gaza after Palestinian fighters launched rocket attacks in retaliation for the death of Yassin in an Israeli air strike yesterday.

Palestinian fury boiled over in Gaza and the West Bank after the assassination, which threatened to catapult the 42-month conflict to a new level of violence.

Hundreds of thousands thronged the streets of Gaza City for Yassin’s funeral procession. Hamas threatened punishing revenge attacks against Israel, also hinting for the first time that the United States could become a target for backing Israel.

Soon after Israeli helicopters fired missiles at the wheelchair-bound Yassin at daybreak as he left his neighbourhood mosque, killing him and six other people, militants began firing crude mortars and rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza and towns just outside the fence, causing no casualties.

Witnesses said six Israeli tanks moved into northern Gaza last night, stopping in fields about 200 yards from the town of Beit Hanoun. The area is where militants set up the homemade rockets aimed at the Israeli town of Sderot.

Israeli military officials said the Israeli forces were there to prevent more rocket fire. In violence that followed the assassination, five other Palestinians were killed yesterday, four in clashes with Israeli troops and one while handling explosives.

Anticipating Hamas attempts at revenge, Israel closed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip, banning Palestinians from entering, and put its security forces on high alert.

In Jerusalem, the usually lively streets were mostly empty last night as Jewish residents stayed home, fearing a Hamas attack. The city has been hard hit by Hamas suicide bombers, targeting buses and restaurants.

Also, Hezbollah guerrillas fired anti-tank missiles and artillery rounds at Israeli troops along Israel’s border with Lebanon, drawing Israeli return fire.

The Yassin assassination was part of Sharon’s effort to crush Hamas ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. However, the killing was seen as a huge gamble that could galvanise the Palestinians behind Israel’s arch-foe Hamas.

The missile strike dealt what could be the final blow to the stalled US-led “road map” peace plan. It also angered Egypt and Jordan, two moderate Arab states whose tacit support Sharon needs for any unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.

More than 200,000 Palestinians, some carrying billowing green Hamas flags, poured into the streets of Gaza City for Yassin’s funeral procession, the largest gathering there in recent memory. Tens of thousands of furious Palestinians took to the streets across the West Bank, clamouring for revenge.

Mourners in Gaza jostled to touch Yassin’s flag-draped coffin, and women ululated and threw flowers and candy. Two Israeli helicopters flew above, and the sky was blackened from the smoke of burning tyres.

At the cemetery, Yassin’s body was paraded through an honour guard of 400 militants armed with anti-tank missiles and machine guns.

While pledging to punish Israel, Hamas also threatened the United States for the first time, saying America’s backing of Israel made the assassination possible.

US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told reporters in Washington: “If they are threatening the United States, we have to take it quite seriously.”

Since Yassin founded Hamas in 1987, the group has killed hundreds of Israelis in scores of attacks. Hamas wants to destroy the Jewish state and replace it with an Islamic one.

Sharon called Yassin the “mastermind of Palestinian terror” and a “mass murderer who is among Israel’s greatest enemies”.

US National Security adviser Condoleezza Rice urged restraint, while White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the US government was “deeply troubled” by the assassination.

Arab nations, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and most European governments condemned the Israeli strike.

The Palestinian Authority declared a three-day mourning period and closed Palestinian schools.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat opened a mourning area at his compound and the Palestinian Cabinet held an emergency session for Yassin, Arafat’s main political rival.