Killing of Ahmed Yassin

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On 22 March 2004, the Palestinian leader and one of the founders of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, aged 67, was assassinated in Gaza City. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – who used a wheelchair due to being quadriplegic since his adolescence – was returning from performing the Fajr prayer, and his companions were also killed immediately. His assassination caused a state of anger and Palestinian factions vowed revenge, with Hamas saying that Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon "opened the gates of hell." Shortly after the attack, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi took over the leadership of the movement in the Gaza Strip. Yassin survived an earlier attempt on his life, on 6 September 2003. According to Israeli radio, Sharon personally supervised the 2004 attack on Yassin.

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