Hamas will fight Israel 'everywhere'

[General Duke]

Hamas will fight Israel 'everywhere'

 

 

Wednesday 24 March 2004, 12:35 Makka Time, 9:35 GMT

 

 

Al-Rantisi will now be the head of Hamas in Gaza

 

Abd Al-Aziz al-Rantisi has taken over as the new leader of Hamas in Gaza after Israel's assassination of the group's founder.

 

 

On taking over from the assassinated Shaikh Ahmad Yasin, al-Rantisi vowed Israelis "will not know security" and threatened to "fight them everywhere".

 

He called on the military wing of Hamas, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, to "teach Israel a lesson".

 

Call to strike

 

"We tell the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades: you must teach a lesson to the enemy. The door is open for you to strike all places, all the time and using all means," al-Rantisi said, addressing thousands of supporters.

 

"This enemy must come to the realisation that we fear nothing," he said.

 

Hamas supporters responded chanting: "We will sacrifice our blood and souls for you."

 

Senior Hamas official Ismail Haniya had earlier announced al-Rantisi had been chosen as the official deputy to Shaikh Yasin before his death.

 

"As a consequence, Dr al-Rantisi will take over from the shaikh as the head of the movement," he said.

 

Smooth succession

 

Al-Rantisi confirmed his appointment, saying: "During its last meeting, the consultative council confirmed Shaikh Yasin as leader and elected me as deputy and, therefore, according to the statutes, the deputy replaces the leader if he is eliminated."

 

"We tell the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades: you must teach a lesson to the enemy"

 

Abd Al-Aziz al-Rantisi

 

 

Khalid Mishaal, a Hamas leader based in Syria, still heads the group's political bureau, the main decision-making body.

 

A senior Hamas official said on condition of anonymity: "The successor to Shaikh Yasin is the internal leader while Khalid Mishaal is the head of the overseas political bureau."

 

Meanwhile, occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank continued to mourn the death of Yasin.

 

Schools, universities and businesses are closed, reported Aljazeera’s correspondent.

 

Israel was on heightened alert for retaliatory attacks. Security has also been boosted at Israeli embassies around the world.

[General Duke]

Rantisi will take Yassin's place in Gaza

 

 

Abdel Aziz Rantisi was named yesterday as Hamas chief for the Gaza Strip and immediately repeated the faction's vows of vengeance for the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

 

Mr Rantisi, 57, a frequent spokesman for Hamas on television, was appointed as the organisation moved swiftly to fill the gaps left by Sheikh Yassin. It designated the exiled Khaled Mashaal, chief of the faction's political bureau, as overall leader.

 

Mr Rantisi addressed thousands of mourners gathered in Gaza's main soccer stadium a day after Sheikh Yassin was killed in a missile strike by Israeli helicopters. He said: "We will fight them everywhere. We will hit them everywhere. We will chase them everywhere. We will teach them lessons in confrontation."

 

Hamas supporters responded, chanting: "We will sacrifice our blood and souls for you."

 

Mr Rantisi, a paediatrician, said that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israeli leaders would never feel "security or safety".

 

He said: "My dear people, you who were displaced by the Jews from your cities and villages, you will return to your villages and cities through fighting, because we don't have any other strategic option ... Resistance is continuing," he said.

 

Hamas's new Gaza leader is seen in some quarters as a hardliner, in contrast to Abu Shanab who was also assassinated by the Israelis last year and had floated possible acceptance of a two-state solution as an interim means of achieving peace. Mr Rantisi's family fled as refugees to Gaza in 1948 from their home village near Jaffa. He has six children and has had a post at the Islamic university in Gaza since 1978. Arrested five times by the Israelis in the 1980s and 1990s, he was expelled to south Lebanon in 1992 with 400 activists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

 

He became the spokesman for the group, which returned after a year. He was arrested on his return and sentenced to three and a half years in prison for his political activities in South Lebanon. He stayed in prison until 1997. In June last year, he escaped an assassination attempt, which was criticised publicly at the time by President George Bush.

 

* Arabs marched in their hundreds in the streets of Nazareth yesterday to protest against the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The protesters, among them senior Arab officials, were dressed in black, and hoisting black banners, Palestinian flags, along with a wheelchair and coffin.

[General Duke]

GAZA, March 24 (Xinhuanet) --

 

Islamic resistance movement Hamas senior leader Sa'eed Seyam announced on Wednesday that there is no need for an internal election in Hamas after Abdel Aziz Ranteesi was chosen to be the leader of the movement in the Gaza Strip.

 

"There is no need for election after the assassination of SheikhAhmed Yassin because Abdel Aziz Ranteesi was elected when Sheikh Yassin was alive as a deputy to the Sheikh," said Seyam.

 

He said that electing Ranteesi as a deputy to Yassin "was not declared for security reasons," adding that the election took place about three weeks ago in Gaza, "but it was not publicly declared."

 

"Because of the occupation policy of targeting the movement's top leaders and because of security reasons, it was not announced at that time that Ranteesi was elected as a deputy to Yassin," saidSeyam.

 

He said that "it was natural that Ranteesi would automatically become the leader of the movement in the Gaza Strip as he was a deputy to Sheikh Yassin." Enditem