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Hamas Leader "Marked for Death"

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  • Hamas Leader "Marked for Death"

    Hamas Leader Marked for Death

    JERUSALEM — Israel (search) is set to resume targeted killings of top Hamas (search) militants and leveled a blunt warning to the group's elderly spiritual leader that he tops the list of those to be hunted and put to death.

    The threat comes after a Palestinian homicide attacker blew herself up this week at a crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip (search), killing four Israelis.

    Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin topped the list of those the military is stalking.

    "Sheik Yassin (search) is marked for death, and he should hide himself deep underground where he won't know the difference between day and night," Boim told Army Radio on Thursday night. "And we will find him in the tunnels, and we will eliminate him."

    Yassin already dodged one Israeli attempt to kill him in September. A warplane dropped a 550-pound bomb on a building where he and the rest of the top Hamas leadership were meeting in a single room, but Yassin escaped with just a small wound to his hand.

    After several other high-profile but ineffective attacks against Palestinian leaders in the summer, Israel scaled back its efforts in concert with a significant drop in Hamas bombings.

    There was never evidence of even an unspoken agreement between the two enemies. Israel insisted that the downturn was attributable to its own security forces, claiming that they arrested as many as 30 potential homicide bombers.

    For their part, Hamas leaders, though often in hiding to avoid Israeli strikes, kept up their militant pronouncements and rebuffed efforts by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Egyptian mediators to declare a halt to attacks against Israelis.

    The homicide bombing on Wednesday put an end to the "so-called quiet period," said the Israeli air force commander, Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz.

    The attack at the Erez crossing was the first time the Islamic militant Hamas dispatched a woman homicide bomber. An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yassin issued a religious edict permitting women to carry out bombings, something Hamas resisted in the past, and that Yassin personally approved the attack.

    Halutz denied that the reduction in Israel's targeted killings was linked to a slowdown in Palestinian attacks.

    "Since it is a preventive measure, it has nothing to do with the number of casualties that we have," he told a meeting Thursday of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Air force helicopters launching missiles have been used in most of the targeted killings, which Palestinians denounce as assassination of their leaders.

    Without giving details, Halutz said the air force and military intelligence have developed "pinpoint" methods to "hit only those who deserve it." However, dozens of bystanders have been killed in airstrikes in towns, cities and refugee camps.

    Top army commanders met at the Defense Ministry on Thursday to consider a response to Wednesday's homicide attack.

    It also was decided at the meeting to close the Gaza crossing points with Israel only briefly, until Sunday, to minimize hardship for ordinary Palestinians, the official said.

    The closure prevented thousands of Palestinian workers from getting to their jobs in Israel and a nearby industrial zone. The workers, among the few with jobs in the impoverished coastal strip, worried life would only become harder following the bombing. Some workers, though unwilling to directly criticize Hamas, questioned the wisdom of the target -- the crossing they must use to get to their jobs.

    "I think we have the right to fight to end the occupation, but at the same time we have to think 100 times before any act," said Fawaz Radwan, 42, who works in a food factory near the Israeli town of Ashkelon.

    Even such veiled criticism remains relatively rare, though some Palestinians grumble in private about tighter travel bans or other hardships caused by the militants' actions. In a society where consensus is valued, criticizing the armed groups openly is seen by many as a betrayal.

    Thousands marched through Gaza City during the funeral for the bomber, Reem Raiyshi, 22, a mother of two small children. Masked gunmen carried her coffin, draped in the green Hamas flag.

    "It is not enough to call her a hero. Calling her hero does not give the whole truth. This woman abandoned her husband and children in order to win paradise," a Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, said in a eulogy.
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108611,00.html
    Last edited by Leader; 16 Jan 04,, 20:08.

  • #2
    Re: Hamas Leader "Marked for Death"

    Originally posted by Leader

    "I think we have the right to fight to end the occupation, but at the same time we have to think 100 times before any act," said Fawaz Radwan, 42, who works in a food factory near the Israeli town of Ashkelon.
    She doesn't say. Now was this on her lunch break, or was she being a less than model employee?

    Comment


    • #3
      Good for isreal....I personally wouldn't even warn them that they are being hunted.
      Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

      -- Larry Elder

      Comment


      • #4
        I doubt it will have much long term effect, but I can't say I'll miss him.

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        • #5
          The sad thing is we could have killed him last year sometime, but in consideration for civilian deaths a 250kg bomb was used instead of 500kg. Unfortunately, he survived. Shows you what good intentions get you
          Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

          Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

          Comment


          • #6
            No good deed goes unpunished. And this doesn't help my habit of being wary of trusting Arabs.

            Comment


            • #7
              Target all of 'em.
              No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
              I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
              even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
              He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

              Comment


              • #8
                Why should Israel have concern for civilians if the Palestinians who absolutly no regard for innocent civilians, even if they had a "normal" military they would probably still target civilians. Israel has suffered for too long.

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