Hamas: Sharon has opened the gates of hell
Last update - 08:16 22/03/2004
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, News Agencies and Haaretz Service
w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m
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haaretz.com
Hamas leaders vowed Monday to "cut off" the head of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, after their spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in a missile strike by Israeli helicopter gunships in Gaza City.
"Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting off his head," leaders of the radical Islamic group vowed.
"Words cannot describe the emotion of anger and hate inside our hearts," said Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin in Gaza. He said that "the enemy should expect a response that will turn the ground under his feet to hell."
Top Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi said "Yassin is a man in a nation, and a nation in a man. And the retaliation of this nation, will be of the size of this man. You will see deeds not words." Rantisi himself was wounded in an Israeli airstrike in June 2003, when a helicopter launched missiles at his car.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, many in tears, poured into Gaza City streets. Gunmen fired into the air and militants threw dozens of pipe-bombs to express their outrage. The Palestinian Authority declared three days of mourning.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant group connected to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, declared war on Israelis in response to the assassination. "War, war, war on the sons of Zion. An eye for an eye. There will be a response within hours, God willing," the group, which has killed said in a statement.
PA officials condemned the attack. "This is a crazy and very dangerous act. It opens the door wide to chaos. Yassin is known for his moderation and he was controlling Hamas and therefore this is a dangerous, cowardly act," said Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
"Assassinations, incursions, walls, will not produce peace and security, on the contrary, it will just add fuel to the fire," said Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat.
Sufyan Abu Zaydeh, a Palestinian Authority official, said the killing of Yassin was reminiscent of Israel's assassination of Hamas bombmaker Yehiye Ayash in Gaza in January 1996. Hamas responded to the killing of Ayash, nicknamed "The Engineer" by Israel, with a series of deadly suicide bombings inside Israel that killed close to sixty people in the space of 10 days. Yassin's killing, Abu Zaydeh said, would spark "a harsh wave of attacks."
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