Mashaal 'to visit Gaza in December'
Published yesterday (updated) 25/11/2012 19:39
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=541816

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Exiled Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal plans to visit the
Gaza Strip for the first time next month, informed sources told Ma'an on
Sunday.

Mashaal hopes to attend the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Islamist
movement in Gaza.

Ahmad Yousef, a former adviser to Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, told
Ma'an that Mashaal will be in Gaza soon, but the details of his trip will be
confidential.

Mashaal, 56, took over as Hamas leader following the 2004 assassinations of
Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movement's founder. With
both of them killed in the Gaza Strip, Mashaal has led Hamas from the
relative safety of exile.

He narrowly survived a 1997 Israeli attempt to kill him when two agents
injected him with poison in broad daylight on a street outside his office in
the Jordanian capital.