Sheikh Nizar Rayyan (wearing the blue jacket in the above image), the Hamas leader killed in an Israeli air assault earlier this week, was famous for many things. He had four wives - a fact which should prick the consciences of those western liberals who make excuses for Hamas. And, in 2001, he dispatched his son to die in a suicide bombing operation, something which tells us a great deal about his attitude to his family. One of his wives and three of his children were killed with him. And they needn’t have been.

Here’s Jonathan Fighel:

Prior to striking Rayyan’s house the IDF warned his family about the imminent attack and urged them to evacuate the place, but they refused to do so, hoping that the underground shelter (loaded with arms and ammunitions) would eventually protect them.

Rayyan was a hardcore fanatic, whose vicious antisemitism had an absurdist touch. Jeffrey Goldberg recalls a conversation with him:

I asked him if he believed, as some Hamas theologians do (and certainly as many Hezbollah leaders do) that Jews are the “sons of pigs and apes.” He gave me an interesting answer that reflects a myopic reading of the Koran. “Allah changed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs, it is true, but he specifically said these apes and pigs did not have the ability to reproduce. So it is not literally true that Jews today are descended from pigs and apes, but it is true that some of the ancestors of Jews were transformed into pigs and apes, and it is true that Allah continually makes the Jews pay for their crimes in many different ways. They are a cursed people.”

What are our crimes? I asked Rayyan. “You are murderers of the prophets and you have closed your ears to the Messenger of Allah,” he said. “Jews tried to kill the Prophet, peace be unto him. All throughout history, you have stood in opposition to the word of God.”