MIDDLE EAST: Senior Hamas figure Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi was an easy target when Israel tried to assassinate him yesterday.
Mr Rantissi (55), a co-founder of the radical Islamic movement, had refused to go into hiding - like many of his comrades on Israel's wanted list - since Hamas launched a suicide bombing campaign to spearhead a 32-month-old uprising for statehood.
Instead, the Egyptian-trained paediatrician continued living openly in a third-storey apartment in Gaza City, where his only security was a bodyguard stationed on the staircase.
He has long depicted himself as a Hamas politician with no links to the military wing. But Israel has refused to accept the distinction, accusing him of being a top decision-maker on attacks and of using his media role to incite violence.
With Mr Rantissi filling the role of Hamas spokesman, camera crews from around the world have trooped to his modestly furnished living room to hear him issue vows of revenge, often in calm, even tones, for Israel's killing of militants. Yesterday, Mr Rantissi was the target.
A devout Muslim and father of six, Rantissi has been known to interrupt interviews for his five-times daily prayers. But his Western-style suits and nearly fluent English have also made him media-friendly enough to command air time on CNN and BBC.
Mr Rantissi had taken centre stage over the past week in rejecting calls by Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas to stop attacks on Israelis in line with the US-led peace plan.
Mr Rantissi's hardline approach has won him many admirers among a Palestinian younger generation increasingly radicalised amid Israel's crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Born near what is now Israel's coastal city of Ashkelon, Mr Rantissi was taken as an infant to the Gaza Strip by his family, one of thousands displaced during the war that led to the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.
He grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp and received his medical training in Egypt. Returning to Gaza, he helped found Hamas in 1987. The group is dedicated to destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamic state.
He was jailed on and off for years by Israel for his role in a first uprising, or Intifada, that began in 1987. He also spent time in Palestinian Authority jails for speaking out against peacemaking with Israel. Mr Rantissi also played a major role in building Hamas's support, often at the expense of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and his Fatah faction.