Hamas pledges revenge

The Middle East is braced for its bloodiest conflict in years after a leading Palestinian cleric was killed in an Israeli air strike.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, 67, spiritual head of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, is said by Israel to be the inspiration behind the suicide bombings that have killed hundreds. Yassin, a quadriplegic, died in a hail of missiles fired from Israeli army helicoptersas he was being pushed in his wheelchair from a mosque in Gaza City.

Within hours an estimated 200,000 Palestinians poured onto the streets as the coffins of Yassin and his bodyguards were carried aloft. "All of Palestine will turn into a volcano that will burn up the enemies," said Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, adding: "Words cannot describe the anger and hate inside our hearts."

Rage on the streets was echoed by Arab states around the region. Egyptian president Israel in three years of violence. One witness to the dawn attack said: "Sheikh Yassin was lying on the ground and his wheelchair was destroyed. People darted left and right. Then another two missiles landed."

At least eight people are thought to have died. The missile strike sparked a wave of violence and anger.

Hamas political leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi said: "They are the killers of prophets and today they killed an Islamic symbol.

"It's a war on Islam. What happened was beyond the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. They wanted to assassinate the Palestinian cause."

The attack is seen as an enormous gamble by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon who is trying to score a decisive victory against Hamas before a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

It was a carbon copy of other Israeli assassinations of militant Islamic leaders during the violence that erupted after peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians foundered in 2000.

It prompted a wave of international condemnation, but today Mr Sharon said that Israel will press ahead with its "war on terror".

Describing Yassin as an "arch-terrorist" who plotted attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis, he said: "The war against terror has not ended and will continue day after day, everywhere. This is a difficult struggle that all the countries of the enlightened world must participate in.

"It is the natural right of the Jewish people, like that of all nations in the world that love life, to hunt down those who rise to destroy it." Israeli radio said Mr Sharon gave the order from his ranch in the Negev desert.

The reaction was immediate. Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza shouting calls of revenge, while mosques in the West Bank and Gaza called a general strike. "We will send death to every house, every city, every street in Israel," shouted militants through loudspeakers.

The Hamas leadership - which is sworn to destroy the Jewish state - said Mr Sharon had "opened the gates of hell". In Nablus a crowd of 15,000 people - including armed men with Hamas headbands - gathered to demand vengeance.

"Dozens of people came to us this morning volunteering to be suicide bombers," said one masked militant. "We will send them in the right time."

In Jenin, another militant stronghold, more than 10,000 people demonstrated, including several dozen armed men from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

As a precaution, the Israeli army sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip to stop any Palestinians entering Israel.

Palestinian president Yasser Arafat declared three days of mourning.

The Palestinian Authority, in offandon negotiations with Israel for more than a decade, described the killing as a "crazy and very dangerous act".

Israeli interior minister Avraham Poraz - one of two cabinet members to vote against the assassination - warned: "I fear we have opened up a cycle here and that many will pay for it with their lives."