World condemns killing of Hamas founder

Palestinians march in the West Bank town of Jenin yesterday protesting the killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Sheikh Yassin was killed in an Israeli helicopter strike in Gaza City, prompting the radical Islamist movement he founded to declare all-out war on the Jewish state. PHOTO: AFP

Fearful the killing will unleash a new spiral of violence in the region blighted by decades of conflict, governments lined up to urge both sides to show restraint as the Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed an all-out war.

Amid a wave of fury in the Palestinian territories which drew thousands out onto the streets, Arab countries led initial outrage at Israel's dawn helicopter strike against the blind, wheelchair-bound, 67-year-old Sheikh in Gaza City.

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But European and Asian leaders were swift to warn that the attack could herald a dangerous new phase in the dragging conflict, unresolved since the creation of Israel in 1948.

Israel had the right to defend itself from terrorism, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters in Brussels ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting called to discuss the fight on terrorism.

"But it is not entitled going for this kind of unlawful killing and we therefore condemn it," the British minister said.

"A measurable restraint is required and I don't believe Israel will benefit from the fact that this morning an (elderly man) in a wheelchair has been the target of assassination."

In a statement, EU foreign ministers condemned the assassination saying it had only poured oil on the tense situation and called for restraint.

"The assassination which has just been carried out has inflamed the situation," said the statement.

In the first US reaction, White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Washington "did not have advance warning" of the attack and repeated previous US calls for calm.

"We would just ask everyone to step back and do nothing that precludes a better day," Rice told Fox News.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched through the occupied territories early Monday, shouting, wailing with some toting guns.

Such scenes were repeated in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared three days of mourning.