By Hanadi Dwaikat, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, April 18 (IslamOnline.net) - Abdelaziz Rantissi, the slain Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, was born on January 23, 1947, in Yubna, near Jaffa.

His 11-member family was displaced in 1948 by Israeli gangs to re-settle in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Khan Yunis.

He studied medicine at Alexandria University, Egypt, and graduated in 1972. Rantissi did his thesis in pediatrics.

He returned to Gaza and in 1976 worked as a physician in Khan Yunis' Naser hospital.

A father of six, Rantissi was one of the leading seven members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip.

His life was turned upside down in 1987 after Israeli occupation troops opened fire randomly at Palestinians protesting the crushing of Palestinian workers by an Israeli truck.

Rantissi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders went down in history when they sparked the first Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation on December 9, 1987.

He was a co-founder of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas with late Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, Abdel Fattah Dukhan, Mohammed Shama, Ibrahim Al-Yazour, Issa Al-Najjar, and Salah Shehada.

He was arrested by Israeli occupation troops in January 1988 to be released in 1990.

In 1992, Rantissi was expelled to southern Lebanon along with 400 Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists and became the spokesman for the expellees.

Upon his return in 1993, he was arrested by Israeli occupation forces and remained in custody till 1997.

He was of the main opponents to any cease-fire with Israel unless it pulled out its troops of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Rantissi worked closely with Sheikh Yassin in 1997 to restore hierarchic command and to reinforce unity within Hamas.

On June 6, 2003, Rantissi broke off discussions with then Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmmoud Abbas, who had called for an end to "armed resistance".

On June 10, 2003, the 56-year-old Rantissi survived an Israeli assassination attempt, suffering leg, arm and chest wounds in a missile attack on his car in central Gaza City.

Speaking from his hospital bed after the failed Israeli assassination attempt, Rantissi stressed that "resistance and rifle are the only way to achieve victory and liberate our land".

He became Hamas new leader in the Gaza Strip following the assassination of the movement's spiritual leader.

An Israeli strike helicopter fired three missiles at the 67-year-old wheelchair-bound Sheikh Yassin after performing the dawn prayers in a mosque near his home, killing him and at least eight others.

Rantissi was assassinated late Saturday, April 17, in an Israeli air strike that also killed at least two other Palestinians.