Birth: NULL/NULL/1945 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Gaza on 6 May 1945; spent his early childhood in Ismailiya, Egypt; primary and secondary education in Gaza; went to Egypt in 1965 to study Medicine, graduating with an M.B.B.Ch. from Ein Shams University, Cairo, in 1971; joined the Muslim Brotherhood Movement while in Egypt; worked as a physician at Gaza Governmental Hospital from 1972-74; returned to Egypt to continue his studies and received an MSc in Surgery from Ein Shams University in 1976; returned to Gaza and worked as surgeon in his private clinic since 1977 and at Gaza Governmental Hospital from 1977-82; also lectured at the Islamic University of Gaza since 1977; Chairman of the Arab Medical Association of Gaza from 1981-85; was arrested by Israel many times throughout the 1980s; led Hamas together with Abdul Aziz Rantisi after the 1989 imprisonment of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin; served as Hamas’ unofficial representative to the PLO from Jan. 1990; member of the Palestinian Council for Higher Education from 1990; elected chairman of the Arab Medical Association of Gaza in 1990; was among the over 400 deportees that were exiled by Israel to Marj Az-Zuhour, South Lebanon, in 1992; has been jailed repeatedly by the PA, incl. for several months in 1996; serves as Hamas spokesman in Gaza; is considered a hard-liner; served as personal physician of Hamas’ spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin; co-founder of the College of Nursing in the Islamic University of Gaza and serves as its Dean; Chairman of the Board of An-Nur Research Center in Gaza; consultant on surgery to the PA Minister of Health; survived an assassination attempt by the Israelis at his home in Ar-Rimal, Gaza, in Sept. 2003; has written many articles and several books on political and religious/Islamic issues, incl. Rhetoric of Political Islam and Refugees and the Right of Return; was elected as PLC member (Change and Reform list) in the Jan. 2006 elections; was appointed as PA Foreign Minister in the subsequent Ismail Haniyeh government.
