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Two Palestinian boys mourn Yassin ý
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Additional
Reporting By Mustafa El-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent
GAZA
CITY, March 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli
occupation forces, given a green light from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, assassinated in the small hours of Monday, March 22, Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the Palestinian
resistance group Hamas, triggering an immediate outcry across occupied
Palestine.
An Israeli strike helicopter fired three
missiles at crippled Yassin and his entourage while in their way back
home following the dawn prayers, IslamOnline.net correspondent says.
“Sheikh
Yassin was dead when he came to hospital,” Gomaa El-Saqa, a doctor at
El-Shifaa hospital in Gaza, told IOL.
Nine
Palestinians, including seven of Yassin's bodyguards, were also killed
in the monstrous raid, which also injured two sons of the veteran
resistance leader.
Ambulances
and fire trucks raced to the scene, sirens wailing and rescue workers
were gathering up parts of the shattered bodies.
Palestinian
hospital sources said 15 people were wounded in the strike.
Salah
Amudi, 30, said he and a first aid nurse had picked up Yassin's remains
from the ground and took them to the hospital in plastic bags.
"I
was also at the mosque praying. Upon leaving, I heard a first missile,
then a second and third," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Yassin's
head was cut in two by the blast and part of his brain had fallen out,
medics and an AFP reporter said.
Under
Sharon's Supervision
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A sea of Palestinians call for avenging the killing of Yassiný
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Sharon
oversaw the entire operation, receiving constant updates from military
officials at his Negev ranch, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
It
said the Israeli security cabinet took the decision to assassinate
Yassin following the March 14 double
bombing at the Ashdod port in which 10 Israelis were killed.
Israeli
troops went on heightened alert at roadblocks and in the occupied
Palestinian territories after the crime.
All
border crossings into Israel were closed to Palestinians and a closure
was clamped on the territories. The police also went on alert inside
Israel, fearing reprisals.
Yassin
was by far the most senior Palestinian resistance symbol killed in more
than three years after the eruption of the second Palestinian Intifada
against the Israeli occupation.
Announcing
Yassin's death, the Hamas leadership said, "Sharon has opened the
gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head."
The
aging spiritual leader of Hamas has been the target of numerous Israeli
assassination attempts.
On
September 6, an Israeli F-16 fighter jet fired several missiles at a
three-story building at Al-Rimal downtown neighborhood in Gaza City
where Sheikh Yassin was but he
survived with just a small wound to his hand.
Palestinians
On Edge
The
heinous Israeli crime triggered a spontaneous Palestinian rallies
throughout the occupied territories as droves of Palestinians took part
in paying last respects to Yassin.
Tens
of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of West Bank cities,
vowing to avenge the killing of 66-year-old Yassin.
The
town of Jenin was the first to massively pay homage to Yassin, killed
when Israeli helicopters fired missiles as he was leaving a mosque after
dawn prayers.
A
sea of wailing and shouting Palestinians gathered in a spontaneous march
through the narrow streets of the city, carrying flags to the colors of
Hamas as well as Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and
Palestine.
"The
first reaction to this assassination will come from Jenin," vowed
Zakaria Al-Zubeidi, the local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Among
the crowd was a group of gun-toting fighters, some of them wearing empty
suicide belts.
"This
is the beginning of a new era. Sharon has started a new war against the
Palestinian people and we are ready to fight him," Zubeidi shouted
through a loudspeaker.
'New
Intifada'
In
Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank, some 8,000 Palestinians have
already gathered in the town centre to mourn the historical figure of
Hamas and vent their anger at Israel.
As
they fired salvos in the air to the cheers of the swelling crowd, one of
the marchers shouted through a loudspeaker that Sheikh Yassin's
assassination marked a new stage in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"A
new Intifada is born today," he proclaimed. "By Allah, we
swear that the reprisals will come soon in the heart of Israel."
All
the shops were closed and schoolchildren did not show up as mosques
throughout the city were blaring out verses from the Qur'an.
Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat declared three days of mourning and the
Palestinian flag above his office in the Ramallah "Muqataa"
headquarters was flying at half-mast.
Some
2,000 Palestinians vowing bloody revenge headed towards Arafat's
compound, urging the Palestinian leader to stop all peace talks with
Israel and calling on Ezzudin Al-Qassam to swiftly strike back at
Israel.
Thousands
of Palestinians also poured onto the streets of Gaza City after the
city's mosques announced the death of Yassin in unison at 5:20 a.m.
(0320 GMT), five minutes after the assassination.
"It
is a catastrophe, a tragedy. I can't believe Sheikh Yassin was
assassinated," 45-year-old accountant Abu Abdullah Nadeem told AFP.
He
was speaking outside Al-Shifaa hospital where an ever-growing crowd of
Palestinian bystanders had gathered, stunned by the news.
"If
they (Israel) killed a symbol, they won't manage to kill the whole
Palestinian people," said Khaled, 42, joining a dense crowd that
was marching towards Sheikh Yassin's house.
"Sheikh
Yassin was not only a symbol for the Palestinian people, but for the
Muslim community worldwide. Even if they killed Sheikh Yassin, he will
stay in our heart," he added.
Amjad
Arafat was locking his sweets shop for the day.
"This
is a devastating news. Sheikh Yassin was a symbol, a teacher. He loved
people. His assassination will unleash a series of operations against
Israel," he said.
Firing
At Protestors
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A man cries as he views the body of Yassin in Gaza's morgue
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In
the Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, Israeli troops opened fire at
demonstrators, killing three people, including a 13-year-old child.
Medics
named the boy as Musaab Al-Khalban and said he had been fatally hit in
the head when troops opened fire from a watchtower in the nearby Jewish
settlement of Ganei Tal.
A
Palestinian journalist was shot dead by Israeli troops in a refugee camp
on the outskirts of Nablus Monday while covering protests against the
killing of Sheikh Yassin, medical sources said.
Mohammed
Abu Halima, 22, was hit in the stomach after troops opened fire in the
Balataa refugee camp. He was taken to hospital in Nablus where he died
of his injuries.
He
had working for the Al-Najah radio station, based in the northern West
Bank city's university.
In
the southern West Bank, four Palestinians were wounded when clashes
broke out with the Israeli occupation troops near Bethlehem, Palestinian
security sources said.
A
loud explosion echoed on the Palestinian side of the main Erez crossing
between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Monday, Aljazeera said.
Also
following the assassination, a Palestinian man attacked with an axe
three Israelis in the West Bank.
Sheikh
Yassin was
born in the village of Al-Joura south of the Gaza Strip in 1938.
Yassin's
emblematic image is ubiquitous throughout the Gaza Strip, and adorns
Israeli prison cells of many Palestinians.
He
frequently said Hamas was willing to stop its operations if Israel
ended the occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing
Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians.
