Thursday, January 01, 2009

Nizar Rayyan considered successor of Ahmed Yassin


Yaakov Katz, JPost.com staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, 52, a senior Hamas leader and cleric, was killed along with several others on Thursday when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on the eight-story Jabalya apartment building he lived in, the IDF said.

Palestinian medics said that nine people were killed, including two of Rayyan's four wives and four of his 12 children, and around 30 were wounded in the air strike.

A large cloud of smoke billowed above the northern Gaza refugee camp after the attack, and Palestinian sources were quoted by Channel 2 as saying that the air strike was carried out by F-16 fighter jets. t. Rayyan's house was serving as an arms and ammunition warehouse and as a Hamas communications center, a statement released by the government press office said.

In addition, a tunnel was located under the house and was used for the escape of terror operatives.

According to the statement, many secondary explosions were identified as a result of the attack, thus proving that the house was used for storing weaponry.

Security officials said that Rayyan was not only the religious leader of Hamas's military wing, Izzadin Kassam, but also one of their military commanders. He was often seen in uniform, and participated in military exercises. He was considered one of the most fanatical Hamas commanders, and was said to be close to Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh, who was killed by the IAF in 2002.

He was both the director and the financier of the 2004 terrorist attack at Ashdod's port which killed ten Israelis.

In October 2001, he sent his son to perpetrate a suicide attack in the Gush Katif settlement Elei Sinai, in which two young Israelis were killed.

Channel 10 reported that Rayyan had replaced Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as the organization's top clerical authority after Yassin's assassination in 2004.

According to Palestinian sources, his family was warned before the attack but did not leave the building, Army Radio reported.

Hamas spokesperson Mushir al-Masri responded to the attack on Thursday afternoon saying, "This is a new escalation in violence. We are taking every precaution to guard the Hamas leaders in order to ensure the enemy doesn't score further victories."

A Hamas statement also threatened revenge on IDF soldiers who were massed along the border with Gaza, waiting for a signal to invade.

"We are waiting for you to enter Gaza to kill you or make you into Schalits," the group said. IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was seized in a cross-border raid by Hamas-affiliated terrorists 2 1/2 years ago, and remains in captivity in Gaza.

Rayyan was the fourth senior terror figure to be killed in air strikes Thursday as the air force appeared to step up the pressure on the leaders of Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip.

Later on Thursday evening, IAF jets bombed the home of Nabil Amrin, another senior terrorist and the commander of a Hamas battalion.

A series of secondary explosions detected following the air strike confirmed that Amrin's house in the Sheikh Raduan neighborhood of Gaza City contained a large weapon and ammunition cash.

It is yet unclear if Amrin was killed in the attack.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733134624&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Comment: Before anyone starts using the excuse, "He was a man of religion" let us face some facts: he was the military leader of Hamas; his house stored ammunitions and weapons; his house served as major communication center for Hamas war on Israel; he funded, organized and helped carry out many terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. Last fact that many do not allow inside their minds: as a religious Muslim leader he believed and taught death ,terror and violence and did not separate his "religious duties" from his terrorist functions. It is past time that the world come to understand this and accept it!

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