Jamal Abu Samhadana

Jamal Abu Samhadana (Arabic: جمال أبو سمهدانة‎, 8 February 1963 – 8 June 2006), from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, was the founder and leader of the Popular Resistance Committees (which have been held responsible for firing missiles into Israel),[1] a former Fatah and Tanzim member, and number two on Israel's list of wanted terrorists.

Abu Samhadana survived an Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip in December 2004[2] but was killed by the Israeli Air Force on 8 June 2006.

Appointment as chief of Executive Force

On 20 April 2006, Abu Samhadana was appointed Director General of the Executive Force, a new security forces in Gaza, by Said Seyam, Interior Minister of the Palestinian National Authority's new Hamas-led government.[3][4] Abu Samhadana was quoted as saying that "We have only one enemy. They are Jews. We have no other enemy. I will continue to carry the rifle and pull the trigger whenever required to defend my people."[5]

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.[6] Abbas subsequently issued a decree banning the formation of the Executive Force that Abu Samhadana was to have headed.[7] However, Hamas defied the President's decree and proceeded with the nomination and the formation of the force.

Assassination

Although Israel acknowledged that Hamas was largely sticking to a ceasefire,[8] on 8 June 2006, he was assassinated, 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.[9][10]

Repercussions of the assassination

At his funeral Samhadana’s supporters called for revenge.[11] Hours after his assassination rockets were fired at Sderot in Israel.[12] The IDF retaliated by bombarding the launch sites on a Gaza beach. During the bombardment period, the civilian Ghalia family was all but wiped out in an explosion.[13] Analysts trace the Samhadana assassination to the rocket fire (on Sderot), through a series of IDF shellings, rocket attacks and commando raids on Gaza that killed over three dozen people, mostly civilians, to the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25.[8][14] Two days after Shalit's capture, the IDF launched Operation Summer Rains killing over 400 Palestinians and wounding 650.[8]

References
  1. Hamas defies 'security force' ban, BBC News Online, 21 April 2006.
  2. Palestinians survive Israeli bid on life, Al jazeera, 10 December 2004.
  3. Rocket chief gets top post, Ynet News, 20 April 2006.
  4. Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, Wanted militant tapped for post in PA Interior Min., April 23, 2006.
  5. Jane Flanagan (2006). "'Jews are our enemy. I will pull the trigger whenever required'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  6. Eric Westervelt, Hamas' New Security Force Rankles Israel, PLO, National Public Radio, 21 April 2006.
  7. Conal Urquhart, Palestinian president vetoes Hamas police, The Guardian, 22 April 2006.
  8. "PRELUDE TO OPERATION CAST LEAD ISRAEL'S UNILATERAL DISENGAGEMENT TO THE EVE OF WAR" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. XXXVIII, No. 3 (Spring 2009), pp. 139–168, ISSN 0377-919X. 2009. pp. 148–149.
  9. "Israeli Airstrike Kills Top Hamas Enforcer in Gaza". Fox News. June 8, 2006. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  10. "Palestinians Protest Against Israeli Targeted Killing". Xinhua News Agency. June 9, 2006. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  11. "Crowds mourn Gaza militant leader". BBC. 2006.
  12. Shmulik Hadad (2006). "3 Qassams hit south following IAF killing". YNet News.
  13. "Case Study: The GazaBeach Incident". Human Rights Watch. 2007.
  14. Sharit G. Lin (2006). "Who started it? - Chronology of the Latest Crisis in the Middle East". Counterpunch.

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