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Posted on 04/18/2004 5:11:04 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of mourners cried out Sunday to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi by Israel ahead of its planned U.S.-backed pullout from Gaza.
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The Hamas military wing pledged "100 retaliations" for Rantissi, a 56-year-old firebrand who was the second Hamas leader Israel killed in Gaza in less than a month. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin died in a missile attack on March 22.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) praised the army for Saturday's helicopter strike on Rantissi, the Palestinian Muslim group's political leader in Gaza, and pledged the Jewish state would continue to "fight terror."
Sharon told his cabinet the assassination was part of a dual strategy to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza -- home to 1.3 million Palestinians and occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war -- while striking at militants.
Rantissi's body was carried aloft on a stretcher draped in a green Hamas flag, his face left uncovered to reveal the red lacerations of shrapnel. Weeping mourners reached out their hands to try to touch his body.
"The blood of Yassin and Rantissi will not be wasted. Their blood will force the eruption of new volcanoes," rose the call of one militant. Thousands took up the refrain of revenge.
Hamas has so far failed to carry out the kind of massive attack it had promised to avenge Yassin's death.
Rantissi, an Egyptian-trained pediatrician, was outspoken in his support of violence. Israel branded him "a mastermind of terrorism." He died when two missiles slammed into his car hours after a suicide bomber killed an Israeli soldier at northern Gaza's Erez crossing.
Hamas's armed wing vowed "100 retaliations" that will shake "the criminal entity."
Faced with an Israeli threat to wipe out all Hamas leaders, the movement said it had named Rantissi's successor but would keep his identity secret. Palestinian sources speculated the new leader was either Mahmoud al-Zahar or Ismail Haniyah.
Rantissi's assassination stoked Palestinian anger already high over President Bush (news - web sites)'s statement this week that Israel could retain land Palestinians want for a state in any peace deal.
"A CRIME"
"It is no doubt a crime," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie told reporters. "Unfortunately the Israelis feel they are supported by the United States administration."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) criticized Rantissi's killing, saying it could lead to more violence in the Middle East. The European Union (news - web sites) and Britain also condemned it.
The United States denied giving Israel the green light to go after Rantissi but refrained from condemning the assassination.
In his first public comments on the killing, Sharon said: "The policy is an effort on the one hand to progress on the diplomatic process and on the other to harm the terror organizations and those who lead them."
Rantissi was viewed as particularly hard-line in a militant Islamic group that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and is sworn to Israel's destruction.
In Gaza, troops killed a Palestinian gunman near a Jewish settlement, thwarting an attempted attack, the army said.
The Al-Aqsa Brigades, part of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) faction, said it had sent the dead militant as a first response to Rantissi's assassination.
"We promise to God that we will continue fighting until the occupation leaves our land," the group said in a statement.
Israel killed Rantissi three days after Sharon won Bush's backing at the White House for his plan to withdraw from Gaza and four Jewish settlements in the West Bank by the end of 2005.
Bush coupled the endorsement with a sharp departure from U.S. policy. He said Israel could not be expected to give up all land captured in the 1967 Middle East war and rejected any right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israel.
Sharon presented his "disengagement plan" to his cabinet on Sunday. But a vote will be delayed until after a referendum on the pullout is held on May 2 among the 200,000 members of the prime minister's right-wing Likud party.
Palestinian leaders say the go-it-alone Israeli steps mask an intention to annex major Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Some 7,500 settlers live in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites). About 200,000 settlers and two million Palestinians reside in the West Bank.
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi listens to his bodyguard Akram Nassar (L) in this file photo taken March 24, 2004. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on April 18, 2004 drawing a threat of 100 revenge attacks from the militant Palestinian group rocked by another major blow before a planned U.S.-backed pullout from Gaza.
Palestinians carry the body of the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, bottom left, through the streets during his funeral in Gaza City, early Sunday, April 18, 2004. Rantisi and two bodyguards were killed in an Israeli missle attack on the car they were driving in Saturday in Gaza City. Iraqi flag is seen at center amidst a sea of green Hamas flags.
Palestinian militants from Hamas chant slogans against the U.S. and Israel during a demonstration at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon April 18, 2004. Thousands of Palestinian in refugees camp in Lebanon protest on Sunday over the killing of Rantissi by Israel.
Students from al-Azhar university in Cairo hold their hands out to symbolize the swords of Islam during a demonstration to protest the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi April 18, 2004. Rantissi was killed less than a month after Israel assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Egyptian students of Al- Azhar university, the highest Islamic Sunni institution, burn American, British and Israeli flags as they flash the Quran demonstrating against Israel's assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas leader, Sunday, April 18, 2004 in Cairo. Rantisi and two bodyguards were killed in an Israeli missile attack on the car they were driving in Saturday in Gaza City. Arabic slogans on the black lables reads as 'steadfastness'.
An elderly Palestinian supporter of the Islamic militant group Hamas holds a pistol and a copy of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, during a march against the killing by Israel of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi in the West Bank City of Nablus Sunday April 18, 2004. Israel assassinated Rantisi in a missile strike on his car on Saturday, part of its declared campaign to wipe out the Islamic militant group's leadership ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Women Hamas supporters hold pictures of assassinated Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi as they attend a demonstration supporting Hamas in the West Bank city of Nablus April 18, 2004.
Tens of thousands of mourners packed the streets of Gaza City during the funeral of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi April 18, 2004.The Hamas military wing pledged '100 retaliations' for Rantissi, a 56-year-old firebrand who was the second Hamas leader Israel killed in Gaza in less than a month. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin died in a missile attack on March 22.
The body of the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi is carried from his house before being taken through the streets during his funeral in Gaza City, early Sunday, April 18, 2004. Rantisi and two bodyguards were killed in an Israeli missile attack on the car they were driving in Saturday in Gaza City.
People watch as the body of the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi is carried through the streets during his funeral in Gaza City, early Sunday, April 18, 2004. Rantisi and two bodyguards were killed in an Israeli missile attack on the car they were driving in Saturday in Gaza City.
Palestinians reach to touch the body of the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi as he is carried through the streets during his funeral in Gaza City, early Sunday, April 18, 2004. Rantisi and two bodyguards were killed in an Israeli missile attack on the car they were driving in Saturday in Gaza City.
A Palestinian kisses the face of Abdelaziz Rantissi in the morgue of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Palestinian relatives of Hamas leader Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi gather around his body in the morgue at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, early Sunday, April 18, 2004. Rantisi and two bodyguards were killed in an Israeli missile attack on the car they were driving in Saturday in Gaza City.
They are fire ants.
Stir them up and they mass in the streets.
Some day Israel will do a riverdance on their heads.
Soon to be revised into past tense.
And - they kill innocent Israelis and join the mujahadeem in Iraq killing US military.
Too bad every time a fuel up my cars I am contributing to the financial well being of the terrorist organization in Palestine via the Saudis oil money.
Kill them both to be sure.
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