Israel frees Hamas co-founder

Israel freed one of the co-founders of the militant Palestinian Hamas today after holding him without trial for the past 14 months.

Mohammed Taha, 68, stepped out of a van outside his home in the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza tom be swept off his feet by jubilant supporters who hoisted him on to their shoulders.

Hamas activists, some firing assault rifles into the air, poured into the streets of Gaza City, while the loudspeakers of local mosques blared out calls to “come and join the celebration.”

Taha was arrested in March last year during an army raid into Bureij, along with his five sons, all Hamas activists. Three were subsequently freed, but one, Yasser, was later killed with his wife and two-year-old daughter in an Israeli missile attack on their car.

The Israeli military had no comment on the elder Taha’s release.

Taha fled Israel with his family during the war that followed Israel’s creation in 1948 and settled in the Bureij camp. He served as a mosque preacher at Gaza City’s Islamic University and at his local mosque.

In recent weeks, Israel has been targeting Hamas leaders for death, killing the founder and leader of the violent Islamic group, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, on March 22, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, three weeks later, in missile attacks.

Hamas has taken responsibility for dozens of suicide bombing attacks that have killed hundreds of Israelis during three and a half years of violence.