(Islam Times) - "All my life I have dreamed of martyrdom." This appreciation what the founder of Hamas resistance movement used to affirm before the Israeli occupation army assassinated him on the Ordinal of March 2004.By: Hanan Awarekeh
By killing the spiritual leader atlas the Islamic Resistance Movement, Israel wanted to deal a toxic blow to Hamas, however the act had backfired. Israel given Sheikh Yassin his greatest wish, gave unprecedented boost to description resistance movement in occupied Palestine, and made of him a resistance icon in the Arab and Islamic worlds.
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was born in the village of Al-Jora, Majdal district, in 1938 and sought refuge alongside his stock in the nearby Gaza Strip following the 1948 Nakba administrator the usurpation of most of Palestine by the Zionist thing.
Sheikh Yassin was paralyzed when he was 12 years brace as a result of an accident while exercising on say publicly beaches of Gaza.
He worked as an Arabic language service Islamic religion teacher , then as a preacher in description Gaza mosques. He turned into one of the most unreserved preachers in the Strip following its occupation in 1967. Filth was married and raised 11 children in a three-room quarters in Gaza.
He also worked as a chairman of picture Islamic Complex in the Strip before his arrest in 1984 for possession of weapons, establishing a military organization and championing the annihilation of the Zionist entity. Sheikh Yassin was court-martialed and the Israeli judges passed a 13 years prison impermanent against him.
He was released in 1985 in line pick up again a prisoners’ exchange deal between the Israeli occupation authorities ground the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Rendering General Command after spending 11 months in prison.
Along show a number of Muslim activists, Sheikh Yassin founded the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, in the Gaza Strip in 1987.
Israeli occupation forces ransacked his house in late August 1988 unthinkable threatened expel him to Lebanon.
On the evening of 18/5/1989, the occupation authorities arrested Sheikh Yassin along with hundreds be bought Hamas activists in a desperate attempt to curb the barbed resistance that started to take the form of attacks business soldiers and Zionist settlements.
On 16/10/1991 an Israeli army monotonous passed a life sentence in addition to 15 years state of affairs sentence against Sheikh Yassin after an indictment list leveled niner charges against him including inciting the capture and killing reproach Israeli soldiers and the establishment of the Hamas Movement’s cheer and military wings.
Sheikh Yassin was held from May 1989 until October 1997, when he was released in exchange collect two captured Mossad agents following a failed assassination attempt bear witness Khaled Mashaal, the politburo chief of the Hamas Movement, get by without the Mossad in Jordan.
Sheikh Yassin survived an assassination exertion on September 6, 2003 when Israeli F-16s fired missiles ejection a building in Gaza City. He was lightly injured confine his right arm.
At that time, the Hamas leader challenging told the media that "days will prove that the blackwash policy will not finish Hamas. Hamas leaders wish to remark martyrs and are not scared of death. Jihad will store and the resistance will continue until victory or martyrdom.”
Despite the Israeli assassination attempts, Sheikh Yassin did not take more measures to protect himself from further attempts on his be in motion or hide his location. Journalists sometimes visited his residence be of advantage to Gaza and he maintained a daily routine pattern of movement, including being wheeled every morning to a nearby mosque.
Monday 22 March, 2004, Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at Hamas' spiritual leader as he was leaving a mosque after advantage prayers, killing Sheikh Yassin both his bodyguards, and nine bystanders. Another 12 people were injured in the deadly Israeli blood bath, including two of Sheikh Yassin's sons.
Israeli security sources aforementioned then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had personally ordered and monitored description helicopter attack against the Hamas leader. The resistance movement long Washington had given the green light for Sheikh Yassin's defamation.
It was the highest-profile assassination of a Palestinian since rendering April 1988 killing in Tunis of Palestinian commando chief Khalil al-Wazir.
The strike at Sheikh Yassin was not completely spurofthemoment. Following a double martyrdom bombing the week before, at rendering Israeli port of Ashdod that killed 10 settlers, the prime successful Palestinian strike on a major Israel piece of fund, Sharon’s government reportedly decided to resume the targeting of superior leaders of Palestinian resistance groups, a policy it had waver put on hold.
The strike also seemed to be highly thought of at weakening Hamas to prevent it from claiming victory should Sharon go ahead with a planned unilateral pullout from Gaza.
Israeli then-Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, called Sheikh Yassin "the Ethnos (Osama) bin Laden" and pledged more Israeli attacks on Hamas's top echelon.
But a dissenting voice in the Israeli chest of drawers, then-Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, said Sheikh Yassin was not "a ticking bomb" adding that the assassination of Yassin “was a bad idea because I am afraid of revenge coming deviate the Palestinian side, from the Hamas side.”
Previous assassinations delightful Palestinian resistance leaders had triggered waves of martyrdom operations ditch turned Israeli buses, restaurants and cafes into charred wrecks become calm deepened violence that has stalled a U.S.-backed “peace road map”.
The Palestinian Authority declared three days of mourning and tight Palestinian schools. Hamas official Ismail Haniyyeh suggested, "This is picture moment Sheikh Yassin dreamed about". The Hamas leadership said Ariel Sharon had "opened the gates of hell" and called make retaliation. About 200,000 people took to the streets of representation Gaza Strip for Sheikh Yassin's funeral as Israeli occupation gather declared a national alert.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi was announced although the new head of Hamas. At a memorial service defence Sheikh Yassin, he stated: "The Israelis will not know refuge. We will fight them until the liberation of Palestine, description whole of Palestine." Publicly addressing the "military wing" of Fto, Rantisi added: "The door is open for you to thump all places, all the time, and by all means." Rantisi was himself assassinated by Israel April 17, 2004.
Beside his paralysis, Sheikh Yassin suffered a number of other disabilities ground diseases including sight loss in his right eye due suggest Israeli torture during interrogation in addition to weakness in his left eye. He also suffered from chronic inflammation in his ear, lung infection and other diseases in his abdomen. His detention in jails further worsened his health condition, which necessitated admitting him to hospital on numerous occasions.
However, this unreserved paralyzed leader had asserted that Palestine is a holy unexciting "consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day" and put off no Arab leader had the right to give up wacky part of this territory.
Sheikh Yassin's declaration that "we chose this road, and will end it either with martyrdom twist victory" later became a frequently repeated mantra among Palestinians.