"Embassies, consulates and trade representation offices of the enemy in Arab countries should be closed," said Sheikh Yassin (AFP)

By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, March 24 (IslamOnline.net) – In a latter addressed to the Arab summit, due in Tunis later this month, Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin urged Arab leaders to support the Palestinians' struggle against occupation and halt normalization with Israel.

In a message he drafted days before his assassination in an Israeli air strike Monday, March 24, Sheikh Yassin exhorted Arab leaders to "rise to the level of challenges."

"The Palestinians are still committed to legitimate resistance of occupation, and the summit should be a boost to this," Sheikh Yassin said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net.

An Israeli strike helicopter fired three missiles at the 67-year-old wheelchair-bound Sheikh Yassin after performing the dawn prayers in a mosque near his home, killing him and at least eight others.

"The Palestinian cause is central to Arabs and Muslims," he stressed.

'Clear Stance'

Asserting that resistance is a legitimate right, the slain Hamas leader rebuffed any association with to terrorism.

"I hope the summit would make a clear stance on this," read his letter.

Sheikh Yassin stressed that the Palestinian lands were "usurped by force" and could only be restored "the same way".

Washington – a key ally to Israel – has designated Hamas as a terrorist group while it is seen by Arabs and Muslims as a resistance movement.

Sheikh Yassin frequently said that Hamas was willing to stop its operations if Israel ended its occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians.

"Aqsa mosque appeals with you. Zionists have prepared themselves for demolishing it," he wrote in his latter.

Israel claims the Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, was built on the so-called Temple Mount, an allegation refuted by scores of historians.

A part of the road leading to one of the mosque’s main gates collapsed earlier in February due to the ongoing Israeli excavations.

Archeologists said the ongoing excavations have already weakened the foundations of the mosque, cautioning it would not stand a powerful earthquake.

'End Normalization'

The now-deceased Hamas spiritual leader urged Arab leaders to halt all forms of normalization with Israel and close its embassies and consulates in their countries.

"Embassies, consulates and trade representation offices of the enemy in Arab countries should be closed, and contacts and cooperation with it be ruptured," read his letter.

Arab countries condemned Yassin’s assassination, while thousands of people took to the streets in Egypt and Jordan calling on their governments to expel Israeli ambassadors.

Egypt and Jordan are the two only Arab countries enjoying diplomatic ties with Israel.