222
WORLD BREAKING NEWS. Cont'd.
Hamas Vows of Revenge
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Photo:
Stronghold of Hamas.
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel assassinated Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin outside a Gaza mosque Monday, striking its heaviest blow against the militant group behind dozens of suicide bombings and drawing vows of revenge. Israeli security sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon personally ordered and monitored the helicopter attack against the paralyzed cleric, whose wheelchair lay squashed in a pool of blood after three missiles exploded. It was the highest-profile assassination of a Palestinian since the April 1988 killing in Tunis of Palestinian commando chief Khalil al-Wazir. At least seven other people died in the Gaza strike. The attack on Yassin as he and his entourage left dawn prayers seemed to be aimed at weakening Hamas, a group seeking Israel's destruction, to prevent it from claiming victory should Sharon go ahead with a planned unilateral pullout from Gaza. After the first missile hit, a witness told Reuters: "I looked to see where Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was. He was lying on the ground and his wheelchair was destroyed. People there darted left and right. Then another two missiles landed." Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking to reporters, called Yassin "the Palestinian (Osama) bin Laden" and said his hands were covered in the blood of Israelis. But a dissenting voice in the Israeli cabinet, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, said Yassin -- Hamas's spiritual leader -- was not "a ticking bomb" and voiced concern his death could lead to the loss of many more Israeli lives in suicide attacks. Officials in the Palestinian Authority called Yassin a moderating force in Hamas, an Islamic movement he co-founded in 1987 with encouragement from Israel, which hoped the new group would undercut its long-time enemy, PLO chief Yasser Arafat.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS AT FUNERAL
In an outpouring of grief, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians marched in a funeral procession for Yassin and the other dead. Eyes burning with tears and rage, mourners reached out to touch Yassin's Islamic flag-draped coffin. "Sharon, start preparing your body bags because (Hamas's) Qassam Brigades will put Israeli houses in mourning and make a funeral in every Israeli street," the crowd chanted. In the first sign of revenge within Israel, a Palestinian with an axe hurt three people outside an army base near Tel Aviv, Israeli police said. He was arrested. Previous assassinations have triggered waves of suicide bombings that have turned Israeli buses, restaurants and cafes into charred wrecks and deepened violence that has stalled a U.S.-backed peace "road map." As a precaution, the Israeli army sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip to stop any Palestinians entering Israel. Witnesses said Israeli troops shot dead one protester in the Gaza Strip and protests spread to the West Bank in scenes reminiscent of the start of a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000. Mosques Wcalled an immediate general strike. The Palestinian Authority, in off-and-on negotiations with Israel for a decade, described Yassin's killing as a "crazy and very dangerous act" that opened the door to chaos. Arafat, the Palestinian president, declared three days of mourning. Yassin's movement ran a broad welfare network that benefited Palestinians and sought to destroy the Jewish state for seizing and settling Arab land. Hamas is an acronym for "zeal."
"KILLERS OF PROPHETS"
"They are the killers of prophets and today they killed an Islamic symbol," said Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, now the most prominent face of Hamas. "It's a war on Islam... What happened was beyond the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, they wanted to assassinate the Palestinian cause." Each side has been trying to bloody the other as much as possible ahead of the possible pullout of the 7,500 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip proposed by Sharon. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie accused Israel of trying to provoke anarchy and called the killing a "crazy and very dangerous act. It opens the door wide to chaos." The Palestinian cabinet stood in a moment of silence. A senior official of the State Department urged all sides to remain calm. The United States, which brands Hamas a terrorist group, has been trying with little success to revive a dormant "road map" for peace in the Middle East. Hamas said it believed Washington had given the green light for Yassin's assassination. "War, war, war on the sons of Zion. An eye for an eye. There will be a response within hours, God willing," said a statement from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, part of Arafat's Fatah faction behind many suicide attacks.
End of the article.