Hamas secretly appointed a new Gaza Strip chief early yesterday, but refused to reveal his identity after Israel assassinated two Hamas leaders in less than a month.
Israel assassinated Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi in a missile strike on his car on Saturday, part of its declared campaign to wipe out the Islamic militant group's leadership ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Two of Rantisi's bodyguards were also killed in the attack.
PHOTO: AP
Hamas posted a statement on its Web site pledging "100 unique retaliations" that will shake Israel. It said it had declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until revenge was complete.
"Yesterday they said that they killed Rantisi to weaken Hamas. They are dreaming. Every time a martyr falls, Hamas is strengthened," Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, told more than 70,000 mourners gathered at the city's largest mosque for the funeral. "Hamas might have a crisis at hand after losing its leaders, but it will not be defeated."
Palestinians demonstrated Sunday throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank calling for attacks to retaliate for the assassination. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in a riot against the killing, hospital officials said.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians thronged the streets of Gaza City yesterday in Rantisi's funeral procession. Hamas supporters chanting "God is great" and "revenge, revenge," threw flowers at the three men's stretchers as they carried them from the hospital.
About 200 armed Hamas militants lined both sides of the road and gave the bodies a military salute as they approached a large blue and green mourning tent set up outside Rantisi's house. Armed men fired into the air and many in the gathered crowd raised their fists in anger.
Green Hamas flags and black mourning flags hung from nearby homes.
"Hamas will move ahead and will continue the resistance march," said local Hamas leader Ahmad Sahar, a friend of Rantisi's.
Rantisi was killed less than a month after Israel assassinated Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The group's Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal reportedly instructed the group to keep the name of its new Gaza leader secret.
Israel has targeted Hamas and its leaders in advance of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposed withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip and a few West Bank settlements.
Sharon vowed to continue hunting down Hamas leaders.
"This policy of making an effort on the one hand to advance a political process and on the other hand to hit the terror organizations and their leaders will continue," Sharon said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday.
Sharon returned from Washington Friday with strong US backing for his plan, as well as unprecedented US support for Israel to hold on to parts of the West Bank under a final peace deal.
Sharon has called for a May 2 referendum on his plan in his hardline Likud Party, and polls show the proposal garnering a slim majority of the party's 200,000 voters.
Two key Israeli Cabinet ministers, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Limor Livnat, decided yesterday to back the plan, giving Sharon a Cabinet majority and the support of influential Likud members.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert denied there was a connection between the referendum and Rantisi's assassination. But the killing underscored Israel's commitment to continue fighting terrorism and hunting down militant leaders even after a pullout, he said.
Israeli Cabinet minister Gideon Ezra said Mashaal -- the overall Hamas leader who Israel tried unsuccessfully to kill in the past -- was also marked for death.
"The fate of Khaled Mashaal is the fate of Rantisi. The minute we have the operational opportunity we will do this," Ezra said.
The Bush administration declined to criticize Rantisi's killing, saying instead that Israel has the right to defend itself from terrorist attacks and urging Palestinians to use restraint in responding.
"The United States strongly urges Israel to consider carefully the consequences of its actions," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said
Arab officials and Muslim leaders called the assassination "state terrorism" that proved Israel was intent on sabotaging peace hopes and suggested American support for such killings, an accusation Israel and the US denied. Earlier in the week, a taped message attributed to Osama bin Laden vowed revenge against America for the Israeli killing of Yassin.
Israeli security forces went on high alert after Rantisi was killed, fearing reprisal bombings. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the killing as a "brutal assassination."
Black smoke from burning tires billowed over Gaza and fresh graffiti promising fierce revenge decorated the walls of the crowded coastal strip. Streets remained empty and stores shuttered as Gazans marked the first of a three-day mourning period for Rantisi. Children stayed home from school.
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
RSS