Israeli raid kills Hamas leader's son

Thousands of angry mourners marched through Gaza today to bury the son of the top Hamas leader who was killed with 16 other Palestinians in an Israeli raid.

Hussam Zahar, 24, was the second son of Hamas chief Mahmoud Zahar to be killed by Israel.

Zahar is Hamas’ most senior member in the Gaza Strip, where the violent Islamic group rules. In 2003 an older brother, Khaled, was killed in a failed Israeli attempt to assassinate his father by dropping a bomb on his home.

Hussam was killed by shrapnel in a battle with Israeli forces on the outskirts of Gaza City.

In all, 17 Palestinians were killed and 45 wounded. Just across the border in Israel, an Ecuadorian volunteer working in the fields of a kibbutz communal farm was shot dead by Hamas sniper fire from Gaza.

In Gaza City more than 20,000 mourners crowded a mosque to pray for the dead. The bodies, wrapped in white shrouds and draped with the green Hamas flag were laid inside.

Later, mourners divided into different funeral marches.

Husam Zahar’s funeral cortege was led by his father and other Hamas leaders, riding in a convoy of armoured cars. Hundreds of Hamas gunmen sprayed bursts of fire into the air while mourners chanted “With our souls, with our blood, we shall sacrifice for you.”

Thousands of mourners on foot joined the funeral, at Gaza’s eastern cemetery, where Husam was buried next to his brother Khaled.

Mahmoud Zahar, widely seen as the mastermind of Hamas’ violent takeover of Gaza in June, rushed to the morgue of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital after being told his son had been killed.

The sons of Hamas leaders have a tradition of participating in the group’s combat operations and many have died in battle or in Israeli missile strikes.

The Hamas-led government announced three days of mourning in the Gaza Strip, lowering the Palestinian flag to half mast throughout the territory, while Zahar’s family set up a traditional mourning tent outside their family home.