Jamal Abu Samhadana

Who was Jamal Abu Samhadana?

Jamal Abu Samhadana, from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, was the founder of the Popular Resistance Committees, a former Fatah and Tanzim member, and number two on Israel's list of wanted terrorists. On 20 April 2006 he was appointed by Said Seyam, Interior Minister of the Palestinian National Authority's new Hamas-led government, as director general of the police forces in the Interior Ministry.

In April 2006, Samhadana was quoted as saying that 'Jews are the "only enemy", and that he will "carry a rifle" and "pull the trigger" to defend the Palestinian people'.

The appointment "sparked new criticism from the U.S. and Israel and intensified the struggle for control of some 70,000 Palestinian security forces" between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas subsequently issued a decree preventing the formation of the force that Abu Samhadana was to have headed. However, Hamas defied the President's veto and proceeded with the nomination.

Abu Samhadana survived an Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip in December 2004.

On June 8 2006, Samhadana was killed in a targeted killing, along with at least three other PRC members, by four missiles fired by Israeli Apache helicopters, guided by Israeli reconnaissance drones, at a PRC camp in Rafah.