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Hamas Spiritual Leader Killed in Israeli Strike
Monday, March 22, 2004
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin (search) was killed in an Israeli airstrike early Monday, Fox News has confirmed.
Witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at Yassin and two bodyguards as they left a mosque at daybreak, killing them instantly. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (search) personally authorized the strike on Yassin, Fox News also confirmed.
Hamas, listed as a terrorist group by both the United States and Israel, vowed revenge against Sharon, promised to "bring death to every home in Israel," and also hinted it would target Israel's ally the United States.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (search), a militant group allied with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, also promised swift retaliation. In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the group said, "An eye for an eye, and the retaliation will be in the coming hours, God willing."
And in a change in tactics for Hamas, the militant group warned in a fax to the Associated Press: "The Zionists didn't carry out their operation without getting the consent of the terrorist American Administration, and it must take responsibility for this crime."
The Palestinian Authority (search) declared three days of mourning and said the Israelis had crossed "all red lines with this cheap and dirty crime."
Several members of Israel's cabinet believed Yassin's assassination would be 'counterproductive," fearing it would provoke revenge attacks by Palestinian militants, Fox News has learned. The Israeli army imposed a full closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip after Yassin's killing, dividing Gaza into three areas, preventing movement between them.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians quickly gathered in the streets to protest and mourn after Hamas (search) announced the death of the quadriplegic Yassin over mosque loudspeakers. Masked fighters at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where Yassin's body was taken, shot into the air in rage. Angry mourners burned tires, sending black smoke over Gaza City.
Two bodyguards and five other people were also killed in the attack. Hospital officials said 17 others were wounded in the attack.
Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles hit Yassin and the bodyguards.
"Their bodies were shattered," he said.
Mosques in the area amplified the sound of Quranic verses, as announcements were made calling Yassin a "martyr." The Palestinian Authority called the strike a "cowardly attack."
An explosion was heard at the Erez (search) border crossing with Israel several hours after the airstrike killed Yassin. Hamas sources said they fired four homemade rockets at the crossing. A puff of smoke was seen rising from the Palestinian side of the crossing. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
Two more Palestinians were killed in Gaza later Monday, one while handling explosives and the second by Israeli army fire, during a protest against the Yassin killing, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Israel said it held Yassin responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. Sharon, a former army general, was updated throughout the operation, security officials said.
Yassin, a quadriplegic, was by far the most senior Palestinian militant killed in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Since September 2000, 474 people — the majority of them Israelis — have been killed in 112 Palestinian homicide bombings (search), most of them carried out by Hamas.
On March 14, a double homicide attack in the Israeli port of Ashdod (search) killed 10 Israelis.
"He was responsible in a direct way for dozens of attacks and the deaths of hundreds of citizens of Israel, foreign citizens and security forces," said army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Feingold.
One Israeli official recently said Yassin was "marked for death." Sharon's government has gone after militant leaders using Israeli helicopter gunships in a controversial policy that has resulted in a number of civilian casualties in addition to the deaths of senior figures in Hamas and other groups.
Sharon's office declined to comment, but Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio, "I said for a long time that Yassin is a target for killing. He was not immune."
More than 150 Palestinian militants have been killed in targeted raids, according to Palestinian medical officials, though that total also includes militants killed resisting arrest.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (search) accused the Israelis of trying to escalate violence with the Palestinians.
"This is one of the biggest crimes that the Israeli government has committed," Qureia told The Associated Press. "Sheik Ahmed Yassin is one of the most important leaders in the Palestinian factions and Israel does know well what they had committed this morning."
The U.S. State Department urged calm.
"We're looking into the circumstances and are in touch with Israeli and Palestinian authorities," spokesman Lou Fintor said. "The United States urges all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint."
In August 2003, the Bush administration froze the financial assets of six top officials of Hamas as well as five European charities said to be sending cash to the militants. President Bush took the action after Hamas claimed responsibility for a homicide attack on a packed bus in Jerusalem that killed 20 people.
U.S. officials have said their conservative estimate is that Hamas raised several million dollars in the United States during the previous decade.
Yassin was viewed as an inspirational figure by his followers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. His death could spur violent protests not only in the Palestinian areas but in the wider Arab and Islamic world, where he was well-regarded as a symbol of the Palestinian battle for independence.
In announcing Yassin's death, Hamas said, "(Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head."
Outside the morgue at Shifa Hospital, Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin, said, "This is the moment Sheik Yassin dreamed about. 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."
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.
Yassin, who was paralyzed at age 12 in a sporting accident, founded Hamas at the start of the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, in 1987. It is an offshoot of the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which is based in Egypt.
Yassin was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1994.
Yassin lived in a modest house in the rundown Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City. Israel, which blamed him for inspiring Hamas bombers and attackers who killed hundreds of Israelis, tried unsuccessfully to kill him in September by dropping a 550-pound bomb on a building where he was meeting with top Hamas leaders.
Yassin suffered a slight wound to his hand and 15 others were wounded.
Past Israeli governments were reluctant to target Yassin, fearing a firestorm of revenge attacks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
"Retreat, hell! We just got here!"-Captain Lloyd Williams, 2nd Marine Division, Belleau Wood, France, WWI
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