(24 Mar 2004) SHOTLIST
APTN
Gaza city
1. Wide of Palestinians hanging Hamas banners on fence, outside tent of mourning for Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin
++Clients please note green colour on soundbites due to the green shade of tent++
2. Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi greeting Hamas members
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Hamas leader in Gaza Strip:
"Me, Sheik Yassin and other members of Hamas, we do as a team, it's not a single decision, so if anyone consider our asking our rights as a hardline, so we are hard."
4. Poster of late Sheik Ahmed Yassin
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Hamas leader in Gaza Strip:
"Are you afraid to die? It's either by killing or by cancer, the same thing, we are all waiting for the last day of our lives. Nothing will be changed, if it is by an Apache (helicopter) or by cardiac arrest, I prefer to be by Apache."
6. Cutaway of Palestinian girls holding a poster of Yassin
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Hamas leader in Gaza Strip:
"That's Zionist propaganda against Hamas and against al-Qaida. No, we are inside Palestine, we are acting only inside Palestine and we are resisting occupation and nothing else and we said many times, our operation will continue only inside our border, here inside our country."
9. Rantisi kissing other Palestinian Hamas members
10. Pan of women mourners chanting "Allah Akbar"
11. Various of female mourners paying respect to Yassin family members
12. Various of Palestinian girls with leaflet with photo of Rantisi
Ramallah, West Bank
13. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia leaving building
14. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Qureia, Palestinian Prime Minister
"We warn against any harming of any Palestinian leader (by Israel)."
(Q: "What about Israeli actions?")
"There is no doubt that Israel is pushing for an escalation."
15. Exterior of Yasser Arafat's headquarters
16. Various arrival to compound
17. Photo-opp Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in meeting
18. Various of meeting
STORYLINE
Hamas has no plans to attack American targets, the group's new leader in Gaza said on Wednesday, backing off from earlier threats against Washington following Israel's assassination of its founder.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi told reporters in Gaza City that his group's militant activities were aimed solely at Israel.
"We are resisting the occupation, nothing else," Rantisi said, adding that "we said many times, our operation will continue only inside our border, here inside our country".
Hamas had issued veiled threats against the United States - something it rarely does - after the death of its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in
an Israeli air strike on Monday.
It issued a statement saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible.
President George W. Bush said after the statement that the United States took the threat seriously.
Rantisi was named the new leader of Hamas in its Gaza Strip stronghold on Tuesday.
The group's overall leader, Khaled Mashal, heads its political bureau in Damascus, Syria.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in suicide bombings and has marked the group's entire leadership for death.
Rantisi on Wednesday said that he was not intimidated by the death of Yassin.
"If it's cardiac arrest or an Apache (helicopter), I prefer to be killed by an Apache," he said.
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