Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, a militant Islamist and Palestinian nationalist organization in the Gaza Strip, in 1987.
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29 Facts About Ahmed Yassin
2.
Ahmed Yassin served as the organization's spiritual leader after its founding.
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3.
Ahmed Yassin was born in al-Jura, a small village near the city of Ashkelon, in the British Mandate of Palestine.
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4.
Ahmed Yassin's date of birth is not known for certain: according to his Palestinian passport, he was born on 1 January 1929, but he claimed to have actually been born in 1937.
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5.
Ahmed Yassin was forced to be educated at home where he read widely, particularly on philosophy and on religion, politics, sociology, and economics.
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6.
Headmaster Mohammad al-Shawa initially had reservations about Ahmed Yassin, concerning the reception he would receive from the pupils due to his disability.
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7.
However, according to al-Shawa, Ahmed Yassin handled them well and his popularity grew, especially among the more scholarly children.
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8.
Ahmed Yassin's teaching methods reportedly provoked mixed reactions among parents because he encouraged his students to attend the mosque an additional two times a week.
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9.
Ahmed Yassin was actively involved in setting up a Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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10.
In 1987, during the First Intifada, Ahmed Yassin co-founded Hamas with Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, originally calling it the "paramilitary wing" of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, and becoming its spiritual leader.
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11.
In 1989, Ahmed Yassin was arrested by Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering killings of alleged Palestinian collaborators.
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14.
Ahmed Yassin immediately repeated his calls for attacks on Israel, using tactics including suicide bombings, thus violating the condition of his release.
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15.
Ahmed Yassin sought to maintain relations with the Palestinian Authority, believing that a clash between the two groups would be harmful to the interests of the Palestinian people.
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16.
Ahmed Yassin was intermittently placed under house arrest by the Authority.
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19.
Ahmed Yassin made no attempt to guard himself from further attempts on his life or hide his location.
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20.
Journalists sometimes visited his Gaza address and Ahmed Yassin maintained a routine daily pattern of activity, including being wheeled every morning to a nearby mosque.
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21.
Ahmed Yassin suggested that the suicide bomber was fulfilling her "obligation" to make jihad, and Israel's Deputy Defence Minister responded by publicly declaring that Ahmed Yassin was "marked for death".
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22.
Ahmed Yassin was a founder and leader of Hamas, which is regarded as a terrorist organization by a number of national governments.
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23.
Ahmed Yassin was the dominant authority of the Hamas leadership, which was directly involved in planning, orchestrating and launching terror attacks carried out by the organization.
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25.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, Ahmed Yassin's Deputy, became the Hamas leader after his assassination.
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26.
Ahmed Yassin was killed by three rockets fired from a Gunship by the Israeli Military.
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27.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was the leader of a terrorist organization, one which has proudly taken credit for indiscriminate attacks against civilians, including most recently an attack last week in the Port of Ashdod, which left 10 Israelis dead.
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28.
Ahmed Yassin preached hatred, and glorified suicide bombings of buses, restaurants, and cafes.
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29.
Ahmed Yassin was opposed to the existence of the State of Israel, and actively sought to undermine a two-state solution in the Middle East.
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