GAZA, 19 April 2004 — Thousands of Hamas activists yesterday bade farewell to their leader Abelaziz Al-Rantissi and vowed revenge for his murder by Israel on Saturday night as Palestinian anger against the Jewish state and its staunchest ally, the United States, boiled over.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised the army for the helicopter strike on Rantissi and pledged his country would continue to “fight terror”.
Mourners kissed Rantissi’s shrapnel-sliced face and others tossed flower petals onto the body. Fists shook at the sky in anger as four Israeli warplanes roared overhead.
“The blood of Yassin and Rantissi will not be wasted. Their blood will force the eruption of new volcanoes,” one man cried. Thousands took up the refrain of revenge, chanting: “We will sacrifice our souls and blood for Rantissi.”
“It was Bush”. The verdict was near unanimous amid the tears and rage on Palestinian streets. “Bush has Rantissi’s blood on his hands,” said Khamis Saadi, among tens of thousands who swept into Gaza’s shabby streets. “All doors to hell should be opened against the Israelis and against the Americans,” he cried.
US officials denied giving a green light to Israel for the assassination. White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the United States had no “advance knowledge” of the attack on Rantissi. “The president has made clear in the past that it is important for Israel to keep in mind the consequences of everything that it does,” she told Fox News. But Palestinians, fuming over unprecedented concessions President George W. Bush gave Sharon last week for a Gaza pullout plan, felt Rantissi’s killing was just another action in the same vein.
There were calls for Hamas to change its longstanding strategy of attacking only Israelis and to start killing Americans too.
A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad said: “We warn America that if it continues on this road we will carry the battle outside Palestine.”
Condemnation of Rantissi’s killing came from around the world. Arab League chief Amr Moussa called on Arab states to adopt a “serious” position toward Israel, but said they could take separate decisions.
“In fact, we must adopt a serious position toward the Israeli criminal policy. I believe things have reached their limit,” Moussa told reporters upon arrival in Kuwait for talks on rescheduling an Arab summit.
But he said each Arab country is free to take the “decision that is consistent with its interests” in response to calls to suspend all forms of contact with the Jewish state.
Javier Solana, foreign policy chief for the European Union — a member of the Middle East peace Quartet — called the killing “unlawful”. Britain, France and Japan all condemned it.
Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr Al-Qibri said: “The United States bears the responsibility for what happens, since after every visit by Sharon to Washington he commits more terrorism and assassinations.”
The Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference joined the condemnation. “Israel should be held responsible for the serious consequences of this vicious crime,” OIC Secretary-General Abdel Wahid Belqeziz said in a statement.
The Muslim World League also deplored the assassination. It urged rights organizations to exert all possible efforts for the protection of the Palestinians.
