- (AFP) - Senior Hamas leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi declared
"open" war on Israel after the Islamist movement's spiritual
guide, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike
in the Gaza Strip.
-
- "War is henceforth open with these murderers, these
criminals and these terrorists," Rantissi said on a Gaza City street
to a background of chants from hundreds of supporters calling for jihad,
or holy war.
-
- "They know it's opened, there will be no revenge,
it's an open war," he added in English, warning the Israelis they
would not enjoy peace.
-
- "Inside Palestine, there will be no security for
the Zionists and Jews," Rantissi vowed.
-
- Israeli public radio said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
had not only given the green light to eliminate Yassin but also personally
supervised the attack.
-
- "With this crime, Sharon, the despicable, sought
to kill off the rights of the Palestinian people to a homeland, to holy
places and to return" for refugees, Rantissi chargedd.
-
- "But I tell Sharon and other leaders of the Zionist
gangs that they will not succeed."
-
- Rantissi condemned what he called a "war against
Islam" in Palestine and Iraq and urged Muslims "to wake from
their sleep, to return to reason and make the earth tremble under the feet
of the Zionists."
-
- Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei also denounced
the killing as a "big and atrocious crime".
-
- "This is a big and atrocious crime and a cowardly
act targeting one of the leaders of the Palestinian people," Qorei
told reporters in Ramallah.
-
- Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat warned that the death
of Sheikh Yassin, founder of the hardline group fighting Israeli occupation,
would only foster greater violence.
-
- "I strongly condemn this ignoble crime perpetrated
by Israeli forces," Erakat told Al-Arabiya.
-
- "The Israeli government has thus chosen the path
of escalation and confrontation," he added, demanding international
protection for the Palestianians.
-
- Erakat said 64 Palestinians had fallen as "martyrs"
during Israeli attacks since the start of March.
-
- "This new crime must move the international community
to think seriously about provding international protection for the Palestinian
people."
-
- Yassin died early Monday in an Israeli helicopter strike
on the Gaza Strip, igniting immediate threats of rerprisals from the military
wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
-
- "We, the Ezzedine al-Qassam leaders, have decided
to take immediate reprisals, like an earthquake that will hit everywhere
to destroy the Zionist presence," said the statement, adding that
the response would be "unexpected."
-
- "The Zionists would not have perpetrated such an
act without obtaining the green light from the terrorist American administration
and it must assume responsibility for this crime," it added.
-
- The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a radical offshoot of Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, said "thousands" of Israelis
would be targeted in retaliation, naming Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as
its prime target.
-
- It called in a statement received by AFP for all Palestinian
factions to "proclaim a war without mercy against the Zionist people."
-
- "We promise the Palestinian people that we will
avenge the assassinations of the Nazi terrorists," added the statement.
-
- The Israeli army said it had sealed off the West Bank
and Gaza Strip Monday following the assassination.
-
- "Following the attack, a complete closure was imposed
on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," Major Sharon Feingold told AFP.
-
- Israeli security services, including the police, have
been placed on a high state of alert throughout the country.
-
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