Israel Assassinates Hamas Spiritual Leader

Backed by U.S.-made F16s jet fighters, an Israeli strike helicopter fired three missiles at crippled Yassin and his entourage while in their way back home following the dawn prayers, IslamOnline.net correspondent says.

“Sheikh Yassin was dead when he came to hospital,” Gomaa El-Saqa, a doctor at El-Shifaa hospital in Gaza, told IOL.

Nine Palestinians, including seven of Yassin’s bodyguards, were also killed in the monstrous raid, which also injured two sons of the veteran resistance leader.

Ambulances and fire trucks raced to the scene, sirens wailing and rescue workers were gathering up parts of the shattered bodies.

Palestinian hospital sources said 15 people were wounded in the strike.

Salah Amudi,30 , said he and a first aid nurse had picked up Yassin’s remains from the ground and took them to the hospital in plastic bags.

"I was also at the mosque praying. Upon leaving, I heard a first missile, then a second and third," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Yassin’s head was cut in two by the blast and part of his brain had fallen out, medics and an AFP reporter said.