Hamas Leader Returns to Cheers in Gaza

The ailing spiritual leader of the militant Islamic movement Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, returned home here to an enthusiastic welcome Monday as part of a deal in which Jordan freed two Israeli intelligence agents.

Israel also released 20 Palestinian political prisoners to the West Bank and Jordan; Israeli officials said 40 to 50 more prisoners will be let out of jail in the next two weeks.

The prisoner exchange, like Israel’s botched Sept. 25 assassination attempt in Jordan by the two agents against another Hamas political leader, was regarded as an embarrassment to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It also was seen as a boon for Hamas, after five suicide bombers from the organization killed 21 people and themselves in downtown Jerusalem this summer.

Khaled Meshaal, the target of the failed Mossad attack in Amman, the Jordanian capital, was injured in the assault last month but has since recovered.

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On Monday, a combative Netanyahu made his first public comments on an affair that has preoccupied his government for nearly two weeks, telling reporters that he takes “general responsibility” for Israel’s war against terrorism, successes and failures alike. But he declined to discuss specifics of the assassination attempt and angrily accused the media of printing “lies” about the incident. He did not elaborate.

The prime minister said the government will establish a commission to investigate the widely criticized attack. His aides, however, said the three-member panel will have no legal power to subpoena witnesses or obtain evidence.

Netanyahu also acknowledged that the incident has damaged relations with Jordan, Israel’s closest ally in the Arab world. “I think this injury can be repaired, and I think we have begun the process of recovery,” the prime minister said.

Meanwhile, the tangled affair that began with the hit against Hamas and led to Monday’s prisoner exchange has yet to end. Analysts say it has strengthened Hamas, dealt blows to Israel’s relations with Jordan and the Palestinians, and created a political crisis for the Netanyahu government.

It also has overshadowed the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations after a six-month rupture. U.S. mediator Dennis B. Ross arrived in Israel on Monday and immediately launched a renewal of committee-level negotiations on existing peace deals. More difficult talks on the details of a final long-term agreement are to begin in Washington next week.

Most immediately, however, the effects of the failed Mossad mission were to allow Hamas to claim that it had been the victim of an Israeli terrorist attack and to force Israel, pressured by Jordan’s King Hussein, to release Yassin, its most valuable political prisoner. Yassin was greeted in Gaza by leaders of the Palestinian Authority, which has been cracking down on Hamas organizations under pressure from Israel and the United Sates.

Israeli political analysts said that under the circumstances, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is unlikely to continue closing Hamas and arresting its militants, and they fear the failed operation against Hamas by the Mossad intelligence agency will lead to further killing.

“My assumption is that Netanyahu will not give up attempts to assassinate leaders of Hamas,” said Menachem Klein, a political scientist at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv. “He has to prove our ability and determination, and there is a whole list of candidates. As for Hamas, they have a high motivation now for retaliation, and I assume they will retaliate.”

Israeli officials said they hoped, however, that Yassin will have a tempering effect on the Hamas military wing. They noted that in statements from jail in recent months, he has advocated peaceful coexistence with Israel.

The sheik’s statements Monday were ambiguous. Before boarding one of the Jordanian king’s helicopters for the trip to the Gaza Strip, Yassin vowed to continue fighting Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands.

“We are peace-seekers. We love peace, and we call on them [Israelis] to maintain peace with us and to help us to restore our rights by means of peace. But if this means is not available, we will never accept the occupation of our country,” Yassin said.

He said a cease-fire with Israel is not possible “until the occupation is over.”

Yassin preached a message of unity with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. “We will never allow differences to be placed between us,” he said. “We will never allow Palestinian blood to be shed to please the occupiers. Our slogan will be, ‘If you don’t extend your hand to kill us, we won’t extend our hand to kill you.’ ”

In Gaza City, Yassin was greeted by the secretary-general of the Palestinian Authority, Atayeb Abdel Rahim. Arafat, who had visited Yassin during his five-day hospital stay in Amman after his release last week, sent his wife, Suha, to convey his welcome.

The frail, 62-year-old Yassin was carried from the helicopter and transported by ambulance to the Yarmouk stadium, a dust-choked soccer field where a crowd of several thousand supporters was waiting in the sun to see him.

Yassin, who addressed the crowd in a thin, weak voice, his words repeated into a microphone by an aide, called on Palestinians to “be united, with no difference between right and left, old or young. We are all one people, in spite of all conspiracies against us.”

The crowd was warm--and, toward the front, wildly enthusiastic, straining to see the white-bearded man seated in a wheelchair, his white headdress only occasionally visible behind a sea of Palestinian security officers and aides.

But the rally, which had been expected to draw tens of thousands, fell well short of that figure. Toward the back, where small groups stood scattered across the field’s dirt surface, the applause was polite or nonexistent. Several onlookers said they had been drawn to the event by curiosity or a feeling of its historical significance, not political support for Hamas or Yassin.

Some, like businessman Ahmed abu Jazer, 45, said Yassin is a hero. “He’s going to change many things” in Gaza, Abu Jazer predicted, including the often wary relationship between Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

In Israel, meanwhile, a poll published Monday indicated that the Meshaal affair left a majority of the respondents dissatisfied with Netanyahu’s performance. But the poll, in the newspaper Maariv, also showed that a nearly equal number--60% of those surveyed--felt that he need not resign.

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Nonetheless, Israelis have looked on with a mixture of confusion, ambivalence and embarrassment at their government’s bungled attack and subsequent release of Yassin. They have seen a legitimization of the Hamas leader: Yassin’s picture, with Arafat and Hussein at his bedside, appeared on the front page of Israeli newspapers.

“People are asking: ‘What did we do? King Hussein mediated the release of Yassin, is he for or against us? What did Netanyahu do? Mr. Combat Terror is strengthening terrorism.’ There is confusion. Everything is upside down,” said political scientist Klein.

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Trounson reported from Gaza and Miller from Jerusalem.