GAZA CITY, 22 August 2003 — Ismail Abu Shanab, assassinated yesterday by Israel in retaliation for a suicide bombing carried out by his Hamas group, was considered a moderating voice in the hard-line Islamist movement.

Israel accused the 53-year-old Abu Shanab of directing “terror attacks” from Gaza, but Palestinians had a different view of the US-trained engineer and Islamic teacher who spent 10 years in Israeli jails.

His style differed from the fiery speeches of his fellow Hamas leaders and he was often considered to be the third-in-command, behind Abdelaziz Rantissi and Mahmud Zahar and in front of Ismail Haniyeh.

“He was one of the best known of the Palestinian political figures and a moderate,” said Mohammad Al-Hindi, a leader of the rival militant group Islamic Jihad.

Abu Shanab was born in Gaza City in 1950 and his family came from the nearby Israeli town of Ashkelon. He graduated from Egypt’s Al-Mansur University in 1977 and worked as an engineer for the United Nations in Gaza.

He went on to get a masters degree in construction engineering from Colorado State University and later taught at the Islamic University in Gaza.

A co-founder of Hamas, he served as a deputy to the movement’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, and was imprisoned for this in 1989.

Hamas’s charter calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, denying Israel’s right to exist.

But Abu Shanab stood out by voicing his acceptance of a settlement with Israel based on a withdrawal to the lines of the 1967 Middle East war. Of the quartet of prominent Hamas political leaders, the smiling and English-speaking Abu Shanab was favorite of foreign televisions.

Abu Shanab was also Hamas’s observer at the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council and his movement’s representative with the National and Islamic Forces, an umbrella group of all Palestinian factions.

Married and the father of 11 children, Abu Shanab lived in the community of Eshaikh Radhwan, north of Gaza City.