GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - An Israeli missile strike killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi as he rode in his car Saturday evening, hospital officials said. Rantisi's son Mohammed and a bodyguard were also killed in the attack.

The militant Hamas leader was one of Israel's top targets after it assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin in an airstrike last month.

Rantisi's car was hit with missiles Saturday evening on the road outside his home, leaving only the burned, destroyed vehicle. After the explosion, Israeli helicopters were heard in the area.

Rantisi was taken to the hospital in critical condition, his body pocked with bloody wounds and blood streaming from his head and neck. He was taken to emergency surgery but died five minutes after arriving at the hospital.

Well now maybe people with think twice about accepting this "prestigious" title as leader of Hamas.

T-Monay820 Wrote:Well now maybe people with think twice about accepting this "prestigious" title as leader of Hamas.

Never thought of it that way

two down, a bunch more to go.

T-Monay820 Wrote:Well now maybe people with think twice about accepting this "prestigious" title as leader of Hamas.

no, they just wont admit it tho.

Hamas Appoints New Leader After Slaying

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas secretly appointed a new Gaza Strip (news - web sites) chief early Sunday, but refused to reveal his identity following Israel's assassination of two previous Hamas leaders in less than a month.

Israel assassinated Hamas leader Abdel Aziz 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. Two of Rantisi's bodyguards were also killed in the attack.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners thronged the streets of Gaza City, chanting "revenge, revenge" and throwing flowers at the men's bodies as they were carried through the streets in a funeral procession.

Hamas posted a statement on its Web site pledging "100 retaliations" that will shake Israel. It said it had declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until revenge was complete.

"Yesterday they said that they killed Rantisi to weaken Hamas. They are dreaming. Every time a martyr falls, Hamas is strengthened," Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, told more than 70,000 mourners gathered at the city's largest mosque for the funeral. "Hamas might have a crisis at hand after losing its leaders, but it will not be defeated."

Palestinian officials also worried Israel would next target Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), whom Israel accuses of fomenting terror. The Israeli Cabinet voted last year to "remove" Arafat.

"President Arafat is going to be the next victim," Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.

Palestinians demonstrated Sunday throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank in anger over Rantisi's killing.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers shot a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in the head, leaving him in critical condition, during a riot against the killing, hospital officials said. The army said soldiers were putting down a large riot but did not shoot live ammunition.

In Bethlehem, a teenager throwing bottles at soldiers was shot in the stomach and wounded. The army said it believed he had been throwing a firebomb.

During the Gaza funeral procession, about 200 armed Hamas militants lined both sides of the road and saluted the bodies as they approached a large blue and green mourning tent set up outside Rantisi's house. Armed members of rival militant groups fired volley after volley of gunfire in the air.

Green Hamas flags and black mourning flags hung from nearby homes.

The graveyard was jammed with people and onlookers gathered on nearby rooftops as Rantisi was buried just a few graves away from Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' founder who was killed by Israel on March 22.

The group's Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal instructed the group to keep the name of its new Gaza leader secret. Army Radio reported the new leader was Mahmoud Zahar, who had been Rantisi's second in command.

"We are committed to the policy of resistance and we cannot be swayed," Zahar told The Associated Press. "Hamas cannot be defeated. Hamas cannot be broken."

Israel has targeted Hamas and its leaders in advance of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s proposed withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip and a few West Bank settlements.

Sharon vowed to continue hunting down Hamas leaders.




"This policy of making an effort on the one hand to advance a political process and on the other hand to hit the terror organizations and their leaders will continue," Sharon said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.

Sharon returned from Washington Friday with strong U.S. backing for his plan, as well as unprecedented U.S. support for Israel to hold on to parts of the West Bank under a final peace deal.

Sharon has called for a May 2 referendum on his plan in his hard-line Likud Party, and polls show the proposal garnering a slim majority of the party's 200,000 voters.

Two key Israeli Cabinet ministers, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (news - web sites) and Education Minister Limor Livnat, decided Sunday to back the plan, giving Sharon a Cabinet majority and the support of influential Likud members.

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert denied there was a connection between the referendum and Rantisi's assassination. But the killing underscored Israel's commitment to continue fighting terrorism and hunting down militant leaders even after a pullout, he said.

Israeli Cabinet minister Gideon Ezra said Mashaal — the overall Hamas leader who Israel tried unsuccessfully to kill in the past — was also marked for death.

"The fate of Khaled Mashaal is the fate of Rantisi. The minute we have the operational opportunity we will do this," Ezra said.

The Bush administration declined to criticize Rantisi's killing, saying instead that Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorist attacks and urging Palestinians to use restraint in responding.

"The United States strongly urges Israel to consider carefully the consequences of its actions," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Arab officials and Muslim leaders called the assassination "state terrorism" that proved Israel was intent on sabotaging peace hopes and suggested American support for such killings, an accusation Israel and the United States denied.

Israeli security forces went on high alert after Rantisi was killed, fearing reprisal bombings. Arafat condemned the killing as a "brutal assassination."

Stores and schools were closed in Gaza. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) instructed schools to devote the first half-hour of lessons to Quran readings in a sign of mourning. Flags were flown at half staff at Arafat's Ramallah headquarters.

In the city of Nablus, crowds hung up effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush (news - web sites), shot them and then burned them as they chanted "revenge, revenge."

Rantisi's car was hit by two missiles Saturday evening about a block from his house in the Sheik Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.

Israeli officials accused Rantisi of planning a large attack on Israel to solidify his leadership and retaliate for Yassin's killing. Hamas is responsible for most of the 112 suicide bombings that have killed 465 people on the Israeli side during 3 1/2 years of violence.

Also Sunday, the Israeli army killed a Palestinian armed with a rifle who tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in Gaza. Hospital officials identified the man as Nael Mohammad Omar, a 22-year-old Islamic Jihad member

The alledged new leader of Hamas is a 'Secret' we'll see how long that holds, I commend Israel for going straight to the top, too bad we (the US) didn't do the same in the mid to late nineties with Bin Laden.

The Hamas will run out of idiots eventually. :jet: :tank:

DukeofDrums Wrote:The Hamas will run out of idiots eventually. :jet: :tank:

Doubtful

Are we getting blamed for this one too?? Because we "allowed Isreal to kill them"...

jrhessey Wrote:Are we getting blamed for this one too?? Because we "allowed Isreal to kill them"...

I thought is was because Bush and Sharon (SP?) met 2 days prior to this attack

I don't know, I've just heard news reports that we are to blame for this becuase we allowed them to do it...

jrhessey Wrote:I don't know, I've just heard news reports that we are to blame for this becuase we allowed them to do it...

Don't you remember? Everything's our fault. We are, after all, the Great Satan! :chair:

T-Monay820 Wrote:

jrhessey Wrote:I don't know, I've just heard news reports that we are to blame for this becuase we allowed them to do it...

Don't you remember? Everything's our fault. We are, after all, the Great Satan! :chair:

And the liberators