Word: mashaal
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...advance, probably a cellar or cave under a house in the area surrounding Rafah, a teeming city of refugee camps of some 250,000 people. Three separate groups claimed responsibility for the abduction, including the military wing of Hamas, which Israel charged was acting on the directions of Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas supremo in Damascus (see box). Two days into the Gaza incursion, Olmert ordered Israeli forces to halt their advance to allow for a mediation push by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. On Friday, Mubarak claimed that Hamas had agreed to release Shalit, but Shalit's captors demanded the release...
...Mashaal, 50, a charismatic ex--physics professor, has remained a thorn in Israel's side. Because Israel has barred Hamas' elected leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, from traveling outside the occupied territories, Mashaal, from his exile in Damascus, has been the militant movement's most effective spokesman and fund raiser. Owing to his lobbying, Iran has pledged $100 million in aid to the Hamas-led government, crippled by a five-month economic blockade imposed by Israel and others in the international community. In the past, Israel showed little hesitation in hitting Hamas militants inside Syria with air strikes...
When Israeli F-16 fighter jets shrieked low over the summer palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad last Wednesday morning, the message was clear: Stop sheltering Khaled Mashaal, the exiled leader of Hamas who is No. 1 on Israel's hit list. "He is definitely in our sights," says Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon. "He is a target...
...Mashaal, who lives in Damascus under Syrian protection, is suspected by the Israelis of having ordered militants to kidnap Corporal Gilad Shalit and take him to the Gaza Strip, although Hamas and other Arab officials insist Mashaal was not directly involved. The Israelis believe he ordered the high-stakes hostage taking to scupper attempts by the Hamas-led government to join in unity talks with moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that would implicitly recognize Israel's right to exist...
...Israelis once tried to kill Mashaal and nearly succeeded. In 1997 two Israeli Mossad agents in Amman tried to assassinate Mashaal, who was allegedly running money and supplies to Palestinian militants in the occupied territories, by smearing his neck with poison. Both would-be assassins were caught, and as Mashaal was dying from the lethal toxin, Jordanian authorities made a deal: they would release the captured Mossad agents in exchange for an antidote to save Mashaal's life. The Israelis complied, and the uproar generated by the botched assassination attempt catapulted Mashaal to the top tier of Hamas' leadership, which...