Israel Frees Ailing Hamas Founder

Israel today freed the founder of the Islamic militant group Hamas from prison and sent the paralyzed leader to Jordan, citing his deteriorating health.

Sheik Ahmed Yassin was released on the order of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and flown in a Jordanian medical helicopter to Amman after a request by Jordan’s King Hussein, the Israeli army said.

Hussein on Tuesday had called on Israel to free Yassin, its most prominent Palestinian prisoner, and other Palestinian captives to move forward the faltering Israel-Palestinian peace talks.

“The sheik is paralyzed in all four limbs, confined to his wheelchair and needs help in all daily activities,” the army said in a statement. “He suffers from muscular deterioration, chronic breathing problems, many internal infections, a hearing loss and has to be checked by a doctor daily.”

Yassin, 62, was jailed by Israel in 1989 and was serving a life sentence for ordering attacks by Hamas guerrillas against Israeli targets.

Most recently, Hamas claimed responsibility for two multiple suicide bombings in Jerusalem’s central market and downtown pedestrian mall in which 25 people died, including the bombers.

No official reason was given for the timing of the release, although the Jordanian king’s call for the sheik’s freedom had come Tuesday during a speech in Zarqa, Jordan.

Jordanian and Palestinian political analysts said Yassin’s release may have been connected to an attack on a Hamas political leader in Amman, the Jordanian capital, on Thursday by two men carrying Canadian passports.

The official Jordanian newspaper Al Rai on Tuesday joined Hamas in accusing the two men who attacked Khaled Meshaal of being Israeli Mossad agents. In a front-page story, it stated that “all the evidence points to that the Israeli Mossad stands behind it and was intending to assassinate Mr. Meshaal.”

Israel denies any connection to the assault on Meshaal.

A Mossad attack against Hamas in Jordan would be a tremendous embarrassment to Hussein, whose 1994 peace agreement with Israel is unpopular among the Palestinian majority in his nation. Hamas issued a leaflet earlier this week accusing Israel of the attack on Meshaal and vowing revenge.

Political analysts in Jordan said Yassin’s release may be part of a deal in which Hussein would free the two men accused in the Meshaal attack. On Tuesday, lawyers said Jordanian prosecutors are treating that case as attempted murder.

Hussein was a guarantor of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements signed by Israel’s previous Labor Party governments and has been among Israel’s few allies in the Arab world. But he has grown openly disillusioned with the hard-line policies of Netanyahu, whose Likud Party came to power in June 1996, and has accused the Israeli leader of failing to meet commitments to Palestinians.

Hussein met Yassin upon his arrival in Amman at 2 a.m. The sheik was hospitalized at the King Hussein Medical Center, a military hospital, and was reported to be in stable condition.

A high-ranking Israeli official who attended the U.S.-sponsored talks between Israel and the Palestinians in New York this week said that the issue of Yassin’s release was not raised in those meetings.

“In the past, his release was discussed for a number of reasons, his health included. It was discussed almost every few months,” said Uzi Arad, a foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu.

Israelis feared rioting and terrorists attacks if Yassin died in an Israeli jail.

The release could also be an attempt by Netanyahu to reciprocate for Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s recent crackdown on the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Times researchers Fayed abu Shammalah in Gaza and Rania Qadri in Amman contributed to this report.