Birth: NULL/NULL/1965 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Khan Younis in 1965 to a refugee family originally from Qbeibeh (east of today’s Ashqelon); studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, graduating in BSc in Science in 1988; joined the Muslim Brotherhood while studying and later Hamas after its foundation; was arrested in the same Israeli operation that captured Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in 1989 and held for 16 months for Hamas membership; after his release, played a major role in forming the Izz Eddin Al-Qassam Brigades; worked in several professions at a time to be able to support himself and his family, incl. his father’s upholstery shop, as cab driver, and starting a chicken farm; opposed Oslo and took part in anti-peace process operations against Israeli soldiers in Gaza; became a leader of the Izz Eddin Al-Qassam Brigades after the assassination of Yahya Ayyash in 1996; was taken into PA custody in May 2000 (under Israeli and US pressure ahead of the ill-fated Camp David summit) and held until April 2001 (partly under house arrest); took over as Gaza commander of Hamas’ military wing in July 2002 after the assassination of Salah Shehadeh; after the Israeli ‘disengagement’ from Gaza in Aug. 2005, appeared in a videotape within the context of Hamas’ campaign to portray the pullout as its own achievement; tops Israel’s most wanted list since several years and has survived numerous Israeli assassination attempts, most recently on 12 July 2006.
