We strongly condemn the coward and criminal assassination of the spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and a number of other Palestinians who were killed along with him.

The assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin is a crime that has targeted the voice of reason and political sanity that the slaughtered Sheikh Yassin had represented over the years. Further, it is an attempt to prevent any kind of understanding between various Palestinian national and Islamic factions prior to ending the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip.

The assassination is yet another example on how military solutions advocated by the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon have failed to eradicate the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation and it is a clear-cut manifestation of the kind of criminal schemes Mr. Sharon and his extremist government hold against the Palestinian people.

Sheikh Yassin's assassination is an attempt to undermine every chance of resuming the peace process and an attempt to impose unilateral settlements and disengagement in a way that will only confiscate more Palestinian land and encircle the Palestinian people in besieged and isolated Bantustans as a preliminary step before uprooting the Palestinians and forcing them out of their homeland.

We call on all peace forces in Israel to act and to take a strong and firm stand against the policy of assassinations and targeted killings adopted by their government and to act in order to stop the current cycle of violence and blood letting, the continuation of which will only claim further lives of innocent Palestinians and Israelis and will never lead to any peace in the region.

We urge the international community to immediately intervene and put an end to the policy of assassination and liquidation that the Israeli government under Ariel Sharon is adopting against the Palestinian people and against their political leaders.

Yasser ABED RABBO

PLO Executive Committee Member,

Head of the Palestinian Peace Coalition