Dozens of Palestinian resistance leaders were killed in targeted assassinations by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during 2004. The most prominent among them were Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who was killed on 22 March, and the group's co-founder, Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi, who was killed on 17 April. Yassin was assassinated in an air strike that also killed one of his sons, as well as two bodyguards. The attack on Al- Rantisi left two others dead, including one of his bodyguards. The following quotes from Yassin and Al-Rantisi have been selected to shed light on their philosophies of resistance. "Our battle is a military one, against soldiers and Jewish settlers. The attacks inside Israel, these are operations we carry out in response to Israeli crimes against our people." "We have already declared a truce before. How did the Israelis react? They continued demolishing our homes, detaining, killing and starving us to death. We are ready to spare what is known as Israeli 'civilians' if Israel spares our people. The clear truth now is that Israel is not leaving us any other option but to resist the occupation." "The Palestinian people have two choices: either they surrender or they continue to resist." "They [the West] consider the stand of the Palestinian people, who defend themselves with stones and all other means, to be unjustified violence against the Zionists."" "All the Zionist people are combatants in the field of battle." "If I am killed there will arise a thousand like me." Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was born near Ashkelon in around 1937. His family moved to Gaza when their village was destroyed in the 1948 War. Paraplegic from childhood, he was almost blind and confined to a wheelchair throughout his adult life. Sentenced to life imprisonment by an Israeli court in 1989 on charges of ordering the execution of two captured Israeli soldiers, he was released in 1997 in exchange for two Mossad agents captured by Jordan, on condition that he refrain from calling for suicide bombings against Israel -- a condition he failed to respect. He was repeatedly placed under house arrest by the Palestinian Authority, but released each time following demonstrations by his supporters. On 6 September 2003, an Israeli F-16 dropped a quarter-tonne bomb on a building in Gaza City where Yassin was staying. He escaped with only light injuries. "To liberate Palestine will require the efforts of the entire Arab and Muslim Umma, and not only the Palestinian people." "We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If the choice is to die by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer to die by Apache." "If the Zionists stopped using helicopters and warplanes against us, and just send their troops in to fight against us, their soldiers would run away like rats, because they are cowards." "The Zionist killers -- Sharon and [Israeli Defence Minister] Mofaz, and all their like -- who shed the blood of Muslims will pay a heavy price." "Even if the Zionists kill all of us [in the leadership], they cannot kill the resistance and Hamas." "We do not support the killing of civilians and we would prefer that not one civilian be killed. If Israel's aggressive acts of killing, starving, arresting and settlement building stop, then we will halt our operations against [Israeli] civilians." Three months before he was killed, Al-Rantisi said Hamas could declare a 10-year truce with Israel if the latter withdrew from the territories occupied in 1967 and a Palestinian state was established. "We propose a 10-year truce in return for [Israeli] withdrawal and the establishment of a [Palestinian] state," Al-Rantisi told Reuters news agency in a telephone interview. Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi was born on 23 October 1947 in the village of Yubna, close to Jaffa. He studied medicine in Egypt for nine years, returning to Gaza in 1976. He co-founded Hamas in 1987 with Sheikh Yassin. In December 1992 he was expelled to southern Lebanon. During the Oslo years, he was frequently arrested and detained by the Palestinian Authority, for his criticism of the PA and of Yasser Arafat. After Sheikh Yassin's release from prison, he assumed the political leadership of the movement. He survived a first attempt on his life on 10 June 2003: an Israeli helicopter launched a missile at the car in which he was travelling, killing several bystanders. Following Sheikh Yassin's assassination, Al- Rantisi was named leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He outlived his old friend and mentor by barely a month. "In that way we got rid of the first murderer [Sheikh Yassin], and in that way a few days ago we got rid of the second murderer [Al-Rantisi], and that is not the end." "Whoever kills Jews or orders Jews and Israeli citizens to be killed... is a marked man." "My plan will bring their [the Palestinians'] dreams to an end." -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "This is worse than a crime, this is an act of stupidity. This is the beginning of a new chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It moves the conflict from the level of solvable national conflict to the level of religious conflict, which by its very nature is insoluble." -- Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery Compiled by Sherine El-Madany
