Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi (Arabic: عبد العزيز الرنتيسي‎; 23 October 1947 – 17 April 2004) was a Palestinian political leader and co-founder of Hamas, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1987.

He studied pediatric medicine and genetics at Alexandria University in Egypt, graduating first in his class; during that time he became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

[2] During the massacre, al-Rantisi recalled that Israeli soldiers killed his uncle in front of him — as he explained to Joe Sacco, this fact was very important for his future life.

Rantisi joined Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Salah Shehadeh, among others, encouraging people to protest the occupation, after mosque services.

[5][6] In December 1992, Rantissi was deported to southern Lebanon, as part of the expulsion of 416 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and emerged as the general spokesman of the expellees.

[9] Rantisi also reportedly threatened, while in his bed in Al-Shifa Hospital, "not a single Jew in Palestine is safe" and "kill Israeli political leaders, because all of them are killers".

"[11] On 17 April 2004, Rantisi was assassinated by the Israeli Air Force, when they fired Hellfire missiles from an AH-64 Apache helicopter at his car.

Israeli army radio stated that this was the first opportunity to target Rantisi, without significant collateral damage, since he took the leadership of Hamas,[12] alleging that he had surrounded himself with human shields since the killing of Yassin.