Yāsīn, Aḥmad, 1936-2004

Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (Arabic: الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين; June 1936/37 – 22 March 2004) was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, an Islamist political and military organization. He also 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. Yassin was born in Ashkelon, in Mandatory Palestine in 1929 or 1936/1937. His family fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine War to Gaza City. Yassin, a quadriplegic who was nearly blind, had been reliant on a wheelchair due to a sporting accident at the age of 16. After its founding in 1987, Yassin served as the spiritual leader of Hamas. The Israeli government held him responsible for the killing of several Israeli civilians. In 2004, he was killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at him as he was being wheeled from Fajr prayer in Gaza City. The attack, which also killed two of his assistants and seven passers-by, was internationally condemned. His funeral procession was attended by 200,000 people in Gaza.