Ahmed Jabari

Who was Ahmed Jabari?

Ahmed al-Jabari was a Palestinian militant and the second-in-command of the military wing of Hamas. He was credited as the leader in the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, and played a role in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Under his command, Hamas developed its own growing weapons capability and acquired longer-range rockets.

While at the Islamic University of Gaza, Jabari joined Fatah, which advocated armed struggle against Israel. In 1982, he was arrested by the Israeli authorities and imprisoned for 13 years. After being released he joined Fatah's Islamist rival Hamas' militant wing and was believed to have been involved in the bombing of a bus in Kfar Darom, following which he was arrested by the Preventive Security Force of the Palestinian Authority in 1998, being released the following year. In 2002, Jabari became the acting operational head of Hamas' militant wing when Mohammad Deif was seriously wounded in an Israeli attack. In this position Jabari was also a high-ranking official within Hamas' political leadership, as well as the founder of the Nur Association, which aimed to help "martyrs and prisoners."