Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader and cleric was killed along with several others on Thursday when an IAF aircraft dropped a bomb on his Jabalya home, the IDF said.Palestine Today says that Sheikh Rayyan knew very well that his house was a target:
Channel 10 reported that Rayyan was the "mufti" of Hamas's military wing and had replaced Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as the organization's top clerical authority after Yassin's assassination in 2004.
In addition, the IAF bombed the homes of three senior Gaza terrorists.
One of the homes belonged to Mohammad Baroud, a top Popular Resistance Committees operative. The army said that there were anti-tank missiles, rockets and bombs in the home.
Another of the homes destroyed belonged to Hasim Drili, a northern Gaza Hamas operative. The army said that he had a manufacturing plant in his home for rockets, mortar shells and missiles.
The third home belonged to Tafik Abu Raf, a Hamas terror operative in the central Gaza Strip. The IDF said that he had a weapons laboratory in his house.
Over the past two days, Israeli aircraft bombed a number of the homes of Hamas leadersin the Gaza Strip, but most of the houses were emptyMa'an adds:
While aware of that, our Sheikh Rayyan refused to come out of his house and remained firm there with a number of his children.
Palestinians have long advocated that the homes threatened by Israeli bombardment should be protected by human shields, and it appears he chose for himself this fate.
Local witnesses told Ma’an that Rayyan had not evacuated his house despite a warning from the Israeli military.
As sickening and twisted as the sheikh was, one can grudgingly admire someone who chooses not to hide from certain death. But when he purposefully sentences his children and (one of) his wives to the same death - or he uses them as human shields to protect himself - he proves himself to be pure, unadulterated evil.