Sheik Ahmed Yassin
| Sheikh Ahmed Yassin أحمد ياسين |
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Ahmed Yassin in Gaza, first quarter of 2004
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| Born | 1 January 1937 Al-Jura, Mandatory Palestine |
| Died | 22 March 2004 (aged 67) Gaza City, Gaza Strip |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Alma mater | Al-Azhar University |
| Occupation | Imam |
| Organization | Hamas |
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (1937 – 22 March 2004) (Arabic: الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين ash-shaykh Aḥmad Ismāʻīl Ḥasan Yāsīn) was a Palestinian imam and politician. He was a founder of Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian paramilitary organization and political party. Yassin also served as the spiritual leader of the organization. Hamas gained popularity in Palestinian society by establishing hospitals, education systems, libraries and other services, but it has also claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks targeting Israeli civilians, leading to its designation as a terrorist organization by the European Union,Israel, Japan, Canada, and the United States.
Yassin, a quadriplegic who was nearly blind, had used a wheelchair since a sporting accident at the age of 12. He was killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at him as he was being wheeled from early morning prayers. His killing, in an attack that claimed the lives of both his bodyguards and nine bystanders, was widely condemned and many observers suggested that the act would negatively impact the peace process. Two hundred thousand Palestinians attended his funeral procession.
Ahmed Yassin was born in al-Jura, a small village near the city of Ashkelon, in the British Mandate of Palestine. His 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. His father, Abdullah Yassin, died when he was three years old. Afterward, he became known in his neighborhood as Ahmad Sa'ada after his mother Sa'ada al-Habeel. This was to differentiate him from the children of his father's other three wives. Together, Yassin had four brothers and two sisters. He and his entire family fled to Gaza, settling in al-Shati Camp after his village was captured by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
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