40 Facts About Ahmed Yassin

Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas in 1987.

Ahmed Yassin served as the first chairman of the Hamas Shura Council and de facto leader of Hamas since its inception from December 1987 until his assassination in March 2004.

Ahmed Yassin's family fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine War to Gaza City.

Ahmed Yassin was born in al-Jura, a small village near the city of Ashkelon, in the Mandatory Palestine.

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 the summer of 1936.

Ahmed Yassin's neck was kept in plaster for 45 days.

Ahmed Yassin was forced to be educated at home where he read widely, particularly on philosophy and on religion, politics, sociology, and economics.

Ahmed Yassin's followers believe that his worldly knowledge made him "one of the best speakers in the Gaza Strip".

Headmaster Mohammad al-Shawa initially had reservations about Ahmed Yassin, concerning the reception he would receive from the pupils due to his disability.

However, according to al-Shawa, Ahmed Yassin handled them well and his popularity grew, especially among the more scholarly children.

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.

Ahmed Yassin was actively involved in setting up a Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 1987, during the First Intifada, Ahmed Yassin co-founded Hamas with Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, originally calling it the "paramilitary wing" of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, and becoming its spiritual leader.

In 1989, Ahmed Yassin was arrested by Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering killings of alleged Palestinian collaborators.

In 1997, Ahmed Yassin was released from Israeli prison as part of an arrangement with Jordan following a failed assassination attempt of Hamas leader Khaled Mashal by the Israeli Mossad in Jordan.

Ahmed Yassin was released in exchange for two Mossad agents who had been arrested by Jordanian authorities, on the condition that he refrained from continuing to call for suicide bombings against Israel.

Ahmed Yassin immediately repeated his calls for attacks on Israel, using tactics including suicide bombings, thus violating the condition of his release.

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.

Ahmed Yassin was intermittently placed under house arrest by the Authority.

Ahmed Yassin was in the building at the time but survived.

Israeli officials later confirmed that Ahmed Yassin was the target of the attack.

Ahmed Yassin's injuries were treated at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Ahmed Yassin further promised that Hamas would teach Israel an "unforgettable lesson" as a result of the assassination attempt.

Ahmed Yassin made no attempt to guard himself from further attempts on his life or hide his location.

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.

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".

Ahmed Yassin was a founder and leader of Hamas, which is regarded as a terrorist organization by Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, Paraguay, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

The Israeli government repeatedly asserted that Ahmed Yassin was responsible for a number of terrorist attacks, which targeted and killed civilians.

In 1997, Ahmed Yassin proposed a halt of attacks on Israel, if Israel withdrew from the West Bank and Gaza.

Ahmed Yassin supported armed resistance against Israel and asserted that Palestine is an Islamic land "consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day" and that no Arab leader had the right to give up any part of this territory.

Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli attack on 22 March 2004.

Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Ahmed Yassin's deputy, became the Hamas leader after his assassination, but was killed shortly thereafter.

The assassination of Ahmed Yassin led to the fact that Hamas, for the first time, was named as the most popular movement in Palestine by the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip two weeks after the assassination.

Ahmed Yassin was killed by three rockets fired from a gunship by the Israeli military.

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.

Security Council statement condemning Israel's assassination of Ahmed Yassin that did not include a condemnation of "Hamas terrorist attacks".

The killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has escalated tensions in Gaza and the greater Middle East, and sets back our effort to resume progress towards peace.

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.

Ahmed Yassin preached hatred, and glorified suicide bombings of buses, restaurants, and cafes.

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.