Gaza (AsiaNews) – Hamas spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was assassinated just at daybreak this morning while returning home after a prayer vigil in a downtown Gaza mosque. His car was hit by 3 Israel missiles, disintegrating the entire vehicle and bodies of Yassin and his 3 bodyguards

A Palestinian nurse said on Israeli radio that Yassin was hit straight on by the rockets and that "nothing was left (of him) except his head". Upon release of the news thousands of Palestinian invaded the streets of Gaza and cried for revenge. 

As they announced Yassin's death from loudspeakers located atop Mosques, Hamas leaders shouted: "Sharon has opened the gates of hell and nothing will stop us from cutting his head off"."

The Al Aqsa Matyrs Brigade has promised to take revenge as well, chanting they wanted to declare  "war, war, war on the sons of Zion" as quoted in the group's official statement released today. The Palestinain Authority has condemned the violence as a "dangerous and cowardly" act. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya said that the incident has "unleashed chaos". "Yassin was known as for his mainstream moderate beliefs and keeping the brakes on Hamas activities, " the premier said. 

Israel has closed all border crossings between its territories and Palestine. According to various rumors the operation to attack and kill Yassin was directly organized by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Yassin, one of the founders of the Hamas organization, is believed to have inspired the Ashdot terrorist attacks in addition to several others. Yassin had been targeted by Israel for quite some time and the Hamas spiritual leader even managed to escape a prior attempt on his life just last September. 

Sheikh Yassin was born in 1938, when Palestine was still under British command. A childhood accident left him quadriplegic. During his youth Yassin studied at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, an academic institution which was greatly influenced by Muslim Brothers fundamentalist group at the time. His full personality emerged following the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987 when he founded the Islamic Hamas organization in concurrence with the secular Al Fatah movement. Hamas signifies "zeal"  but is also the abbreviation for "Islamic Resistance Movement" in the Arabic. 

In 1989 Israel condemned him to life imprisonment for having ordered the killing of 3 Palestinians who had collaborated with the Israeli army. However he was released in 1997 in a prisoner exchange requested by Jordan. His authority grew ever more thanks in part to a network of aid and relief he helped build to support Palestinians. 

Founding foreign-financed charitable organizations, Hamas was able to open schools, clinics, and hospitals for poor families of the region. Yassin had been always against the peace process, despite trying not to separate himself too much from the Al Fatah secular movement and the Palestinian Authority. Instead of negotiating for peace, the religious leader encouraged youth to sacrifice their lives in acts of martyrdom.     

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