- GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip(AP)
- Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin
as he left a mosque near his house at daybreak Monday, residents said,
and witnesses said he was killed.
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- Witnesses said Israeli helicopters fired three missiles
at Yassin and two bodyguards as they left the mosque, killing them instantly.
Hamas officials confirmed that he had been killed.
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- Yussef Haddad, 35, a taxi driver, said he saw the missiles
hit and kill Yassin and the bodyguards. "Their bodies were shattered,"
he said.
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- Yassin was by far the most senior Palestinian militant
killed in more than three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Hundreds
of angry Palestinians gathered around his minutes after the attack, calling
for revenge against Israel.
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- Ambulances and fire trucks raced to the scene. sirens
wailing, and rescue workers were gathering up parts of the shattered bodies.
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- Yassin, a quadriplegic, founded Hamas in 1987. He was
held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1994.
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