March 22, sparking protests and the most serious tension with Arab neighbors in decades. The leaders of Jordan and Egypt, whose political prestige was linked to peace with the Jewish state, condemned the killing in Gaza of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, known for leading an organization that seeks to destroy Israel.
News reports said Yassin, died instantly after being struck by missiles from Israeli military helicopters as he left a mosque near his home in Gaza City. At least seven others also died in the attack, including two of his bodyguards, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
The attack came after Israeli officials said recently that Sheikh Yassin "was marked for death" after he was wounded in an Israeli attack last September.
THOUSANDS MARCH
A senior Hamas official, Abdul Aziz Rantisi, joined thousands of Palestinians marching through Gaza, calling for revenge. He said that killing of Sheikh Yassin means that Hamas starts targeting Israeli political figures. "The road is opened," he explained.
"It is an open war, I know that they [Hamas members] will succeed in assassinating the political leaders [in Israel],” (VOA) quoted him as saying.
Although the Palestinian Authority routinely condemned attacks by Hamas, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Monday Israel would regret killing Sheikh Yassin.
"It’s a cowardly, criminal act against a prominent Palestinian leader who devoted all his life to the favor of the independence of his people. Therefore we strongly condemn this act and we warn everybody of reaction that may happen."
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat echoed these thoughts, declaring three days of official mourning for a man he called “one of the Palestinian people’s greatest martyrs”, VOA reported.
EGYPT ANGRY
As news emerged of the killings, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak announced he was canceling a visit to Israel by a delegation of Egyptian legislators to mark the 25th anniversary of a peace treaty between the two nations. Mubarak said the assassination aborted the peace process and will have widespread effects on the entire region.
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but diplomatic relations between the two countries have reportedly remained chilly for many years. Jordan’s King Abdullah, also denounced Israel’s action, calling it a crime “that will only fuel more violence.”
There were also condemnations from leaders elsewhere in the Middle East. The US-backed interim Governing Council in Iraq warned that the assassination could fuel violence in Iraq and endanger the whole region. Neighboring Iran described the killing was an “act of state-sponsored terrorism” against the Palestinian people.
"ZIONIST REGIME"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi called it “a criminal act and another example of the Zionist regime’s sponsored terrorism and barbarism."
Yet the Israeli Government spokesman Avi Pazner defended the assassination. "Sheikh Yassin was the founder of Hamas, of its terrorist ideology.
He’s personally responsible for ordering the most dreadful terrorist attacks in Israel," Pazner told reporters, referring to the hundreds of Israelis who died in suicide bombings in which. Hamas was involved. "Obviously Hamas is not dead and continues to exist as a very dangerous terrorist organization," he admitted, “but Hamas has been weakened and will be weakened without its leader.”
EUROPEAN UNION
European Union foreign policy Chief Javier Solana disagreed saying that "this type of action does not contribute at all to create the conditions of peace.” Other more pro-Israel countries, including Britain, also said that the killing was unlikely to help fight terrorism.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw reportedly said that while Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism, it cannot use means “outside international law.” “We therefore condemn it. It’s unacceptable, it’s unjustified and it’s very unlikely to achieve its objective," he added.
MAIN FOUNDER
Sheikh Yassin first gained the attention of Israel after becoming a main founder of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, in 1987. Two years later, Israel arrested him for allegedly ordering the execution of Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. An Israeli court sentenced him to life in prison.
He was released eight years later as part of a prisoner exchange with Jordan and received a hero’s welcome when he returned to Gaza. When he died, Sheikh Yassin was almost blind and hard of hearing, and he could speak only in a soft, high-pitched whisper, due to his paralysis. “But he retained enormous influence, providing spiritual and theological justification for attacks on Israel,” VOA commented.
The operation to kill was apparently already underway Sunday, March 21, when
Israeli troops killed at least five Palestinians, including one they say was a wanted fugitive, during gun battles with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, reports said.
