Ahmed Yassin

<a href="/facts/Sheikh/0Upp3Dbz">Sheikh</a> Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and <a href="/facts/Imam/BKmjWDg0">imam</a> who founded <a href="/facts/Hamas/VjIkApsc">Hamas</a> in 1987. He also served as the first <a href="/facts/Chairman_of_the_Hamas_Shura_Council/ysgsWCj3">chairman of the Hamas Shura Council</a> and de facto leader of Hamas since its inception from December 1987 until <a href="/facts/Killing_of_Ahmed_Yassin/taBzTbXH">his assassination</a> in March 2004. 
Yassin was born in <a href="/facts/Ashkelon/aLwPHpaK">Ashkelon</a>, in <a href="/facts/Mandatory_Palestine/mv0NGUBy">Mandatory Palestine</a> in 1929 or 1936. His family <a href="/facts/1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight/bMSw91lU">fled or were expelled</a> during the <a href="/facts/1948_Palestine_War/lGFHlU7R">1948 Palestine War</a> to <a href="/facts/Gaza_City/4mmNgFq6">Gaza City</a>. Yassin, a <a href="/facts/Tetraplegia/uFthc4a2">quadriplegic</a> who was nearly <a href="/facts/Visual_impairment/sFuqKj3n">blind</a>, had been reliant on a wheelchair due to a sporting accident at the age of 12.
After its founding, he served as the <a href="/facts/List_of_leaders_of_Hamas/ysgsWCj3">spiritual leader of Hamas</a>, a <a href="/facts/Sunni/WYo0zeq0">Sunni</a> <a href="/facts/Islamist/4u3G2nEf">Islamist</a> group. The Israeli government held him responsible for the killing of several Israeli civilians. In 2004, <a href="/facts/Killing_of_Ahmed_Yassin/taBzTbXH">he was killed</a> when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at him as he was being wheeled from <a href="/facts/Fajr_prayer/E9mssrYg">Fajr prayer</a> in <a href="/facts/Gaza_City/4mmNgFq6">Gaza City</a>. The attack, which also killed both of his bodyguards and nine bystanders, was internationally condemned. His <a href="/facts/Islamic_funeral/p208UGWP">funeral procession</a> was attended by 200,000 people in Gaza.

Ahmed Yassin open-in-new

Ahmed Yassin