Hamas founder injured in missile strike
Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and 10 other people were wounded today after Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a house in Gaza City.
The missiles hit a third-floor apartment in a building belonging to a well-known Hamas activist.
Yassin and another senior Hamas official, Ismail Hanieh, were in the building at the time.
Hamas officials said Yassin suffered a slight hand injury. He was carried out of the building by his bodyguards and driven away in a car.
Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the militant group, is a quadriplegic.
After the missile strike, a large crowd rushed to the building. One of the missiles tore a large hole into the ceiling of the apartment.
One neighbour, Nasser Zaide, ran to his balcony after the explosion rocked the street and watched Yassin being rushed from the house.
“One missile had come through the ceiling and had destroyed the third floor,” he said.
Rescue workers searched through the rubble. Hospital officials said nine people were wounded, among them children.
A grocer, Raouf Abu Khaled, 52, helped carry the wounded to ambulances.
“I was sitting outside my shop when I saw the jeep of the sheik coming from the side of the street and five minutes later there was a huge explosion.”
It’s unclear where Yassin was taken. He was not being treated at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
Yassin is the highest-ranking Hamas official to be targeted by Israel, which has killed 12 members of the group in seven missile strikes in the past three weeks. Five bystanders have also been killed in these attacks.
Israel’s military has up-to-the-minute intelligence on the movement of Palestinian militants, allowing them to launch quick strikes, often with helicopter gunships.
Yassin’s recognisable brown four-wheel drive Land Rover, driven by his son, was parked outside the house, witnesses said.
