VARIOUS: SENIOR HAMAS LEADER MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR SAYS FROM HIS HOSPITAL BED THAT THE GROUP WILL AVENGE THE KILLINGS OF ITS LEADERS

Record ID: 646519

  • Title: VARIOUS: SENIOR HAMAS LEADER MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR SAYS FROM HIS HOSPITAL BED THAT THE GROUP WILL AVENGE THE KILLINGS OF ITS LEADERS
  • Date: 11th September 2003
  • Summary: (W5) GAZA (SEPTEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) HAS HUNDREDS ATTENDING FUNERAL FOR KHALED AL-ZAHAR, SON OF HAMAS OFFICIAL, MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR MV ZAHAR WALKING DOWN STREET BEHIND BODY; SLV MEN CARRYING THE BODY WRAPPED IN GREEN HAMAS FLAG; SLV FUNERAL PROCESSION (4 SHOTS) (W5) JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 10, 2003) (REUTERS) SCU HAMAS STATEMENT IN ARABIC CU TOP SECTION OF STATEMENT BY THE IZZ EL-DIN AL-QASSAM BRIGADES, HAMAS'S MILITARY WING, WHICH READS "Targeting of civilian houses is a violation of all red lines. Therefore the Zionist enemy will have to shoulder responsibility for the targeting by us of houses and Zionist buildings everywhere in occupied Palestine."
  • Embargoed: 26th September 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAZA / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Jerusalem
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA95VRJGUR4DRQ4GG4FL2FEL5N9
  • Story Text: Hamas vows to avenge the deaths of its leaders.
    Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said from his hospital bed on Wednesday (September 10) that the group would avenge the killings of its leaders in Gaza and the West Bank.
    Zahar's wife and nine-year-old daughter were among 28 other civilians wounded in the attack, which damaged several houses.
    Zahar described Israel's track-and-kill policy, which killed 15 Hamas men, including senior political official Ismail Abu Shanab on August 21, as a "security failure."
    Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters marched later in the day in the funerals of Zahar's son Khaled and his bodyguard calling for revenge while many fired their rifles into the air.
    Zahar condemned a European Union decision to include Hamas as a terrorist group saying the move provided a cover for stepped-up Israel strikes on the group.
    The military wing of the Islamic militant group Hamas threatened to change tactics by attacking Israeli houses and buildings after Israel tried to kill Mahmoud al-Zahar.
    "The targeting of civilian houses is a violation of all red lines. Therefore the Zionist enemy will have to shoulder responsibility for the targeting by us of houses and Zionist buildings everywhere in occupied Palestine,"
    the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, said in a statement.
    Recovering from the attack in hospital Mahmoud al-Zahar said, "It is our right and everybody is sure that when Hamas says something, they implement it. These crimes will not make you (Sharon) are survivor. These crimes are escalating the process of resistance and we are dead sure that they're not going to achieve their goal. Sooner or later we're going to achieve liberation of our land and of Al-Aqsa (Jerusalem shrine)," Zahar told Reuters a few hours after he survived the Israeli air strike on his house that killed his oldest son and his bodyguard and destroyed his house completely.
    The Israeli air strike came a day after two Hamas suicide bombers killed 15 Israelis in two separate attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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