The spiritual leader of Hamas and a figurehead of Palestinian resistance to Israel. Shaikh Yassin offered more than the PLO ever could: a struggle of moral purity, social action and the promise of divine grace - redemption of the homeland and salvation of the troubled soul. He had compelling charisma. Shaikh Ahmad Yassin founded al-Mujamah al-Islami, ('The Islamic Compound'), a welfare organisation that gave rise to an offshoot movement named Hamas (Zeal) in 1987, in Gaza. Al-Mujamah al-Islami's idea was to bring benefits of modernity to Palestinians, in an Islamic context, in the territories occupied by Israel after the June War of 1967. It opened mosques, hospitals, libraries, and did other philanthropic work. Shaikh Yassin was an inspiring person during the early days of the first intifada uprising that began in December 1987 against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. It was largely unarmed six-year uprising that preceded the current far more violent one. Hamas complemented its military activities with social ones. Shaikh Ahmad Yassin was kidnapped and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989 by Israeli, but was released in 1997, as part of an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli soldiers held in Lebanon. Shaikh Ahmad Yassin was born into a middle class farming family from the village of Tor, in southern Palestine. He was blinded by an irreparable damage to his spinal column during a football game and was confined to a wheelchair since the age of 12. He and his family fled to the safety among thousands of Palestinian families driven out by underground Jewish terrorists. Shaikh Ahmad Yassin while returning from a mosque in Gaza City was targeted and killed in a missile attack by the Israeli army.