Slain Hamas leader seen a moderate among militants
Ismail Abu Shanab, the Hamas leader killed in an Israeli helicopter strike yesterday, was widely regarded by Palestinians as a moderate within the militant Islamic group. Israel said the high-profile, US-educated engineer was a member of Hamas's brain...
Ismail Abu Shanab, the Hamas leader killed in an Israeli helicopter strike yesterday, was widely regarded by Palestinians as a moderate within the militant Islamic group.
Israel said the high-profile, US-educated engineer was a member of Hamas's brain trust, which it accused of planning suicide bombings and strengthening a "terrorist infrastructure" during a cease-fire that militants declared on June 29.
A co-founder of Hamas, Abu Shanab, 53, often appeared on television as a political spokesman for the group along with Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, who escaped with light injuries a similar Israeli assassination attempt in June.
Abu Shanab took part in several rounds of dialogue with reformist Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the truce underpinning a US-backed Middle East peace plan.
Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, declared the cease-fire dead after Abu Shanab was killed in the attack in Gaza City.
"As late as Wednesday, he spoke about the necessity to continue the dialogue with the Palestinian Authority," a Hamas official said. "He was a man of great wisdom, who spared no effort to push towards a Palestinian unity."
An Israeli security source took a far different view. "Abu Shanab supported the continuation of Hamas's armed struggle and suicide attacks against Israeli targets," the source said.
"He was a member of Hamas's top leadership that directed the activities of its military arm in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
Abu Shanab spent 10 years in jail in Israel for heading Hamas after Israeli authorities imprisoned the group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 1989.
Born in the village of al-Jeyeh, near the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, Abu Shanab was married and the father of 11 children. He studied engineering in Egypt and received a master's degree in the US.
"His assassination is a big loss to Hamas as a movement, but the only consolation is that Israel will pay a heavy price in blood for killing him," the Hamas official said.