'The ultimate red line'
Israel vows to continue targeting Palestinian leaders as the world reacts quietly to the attempt on Yassin's life.
Khaled Amayreh reports from Jerusalem
Israel's failed attempt to assassinate Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Saturday signaled a turning point in the bitter struggle between Israel and the Palestinians. The failed assassination underscored Sharon's determination to assassinate the political leadership of Hamas irrespective of whether they are involved with the movement's military wing.
Sharon openly spelled out his designs, saying that all "terrorist" leaders were being marked for assassination. "It is either us or them," he said shortly after an American- made F-16 fighter jet dropped a quarter-ton bomb on a residential apartment building in downtown Gaza. Yassin and his aide Ismael Haniyyeh had just left the building where they were visiting a friend, having been alerted that Israeli warplanes were flying over Gaza. The bombing which destroyed much of the targeted building injured as many as 15 people, most of them women and children.
"This is crossing the ultimate red line. It is now open war between us and them," said Hamas spokesman Abdul-Aziz Al Rantissi. Yassin himself, unshaken by the attempt on his life, emerged more defiant. "The Zionists have lost their minds completely, they deal with everything by force and forget that they are facing the Palestinian people who will never surrender," he said in an interview with the Al-Jazeera satellite television. "If they [Israel] think that targeting me or any leaders of Hamas will stop the resistance, they are deluding themselves. They should understand that the battle will continue and that our people will hold them to account and make them pay the price of their crimes."
However, the 67-year-old wheelchair- bound Yassin appealed to the world at large to show a sense of justice and equity toward the Palestinians. "We say to the world where are you? When a Zionist is killed you stand up and take notice, but when a Palestinian is killed you are silent."
The PA which was still embroiled in a power struggle between Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas condemned the assassination attempt. But with Arafat confined to his battered headquarters and increasingly threatened with death or expulsion, there was little more the PA could do. The US reaction came in the form of a terse State Department statement calling on all parties to "exercise self- restraint". And the European Union, whose foreign ministers had just recommended blacklisting Hamas's political leadership, said virtually nothing about the incident.
Predictably, Hamas viewed the attempt on Yassin's life as the ultimate provocation that must not be allowed to pass without a proper and proportionate response. Israeli military officials, for their part, have once again voiced their determination to assassinate movement leaders not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in Beirut, Damascus and Tehran. One intelligence official, Amos Gila'ad, went as far as suggesting that Israel should issue an ultimatum to Syria to expel leaders of the resistance groups or face war.
Indeed, some Palestinian observers view the attempted assassination of Sheikh Yassin as part of a broader strategic decision by Israel to eliminate Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat and the entire PA. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said this week that the Israeli government would soon hold "strategic discussions" to decide Arafat's future. And last week, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the army radio that Israel would get rid of Arafat before the end of the year. While the US expressed mild dismay at the threats, it was clear that Washington was in no mood to pressure Israel to change its course.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued to carry out daily acts of deadly attacks against the Palestinians. Three Palestinian civilians and as many 30 women and children were injured this week in raids on Palestinian towns. In Nablus, more than 50 people became homeless after the Israeli army blew up a seven-storey building under the pretext that Hamas activist Ahmed Hanabali was taking cover inside. Eventually, Hanabali was killed along with an Israeli soldier in an exchange of gunfire.
