Kamal Adwan was a member of the first Palestinian National Council in 1964 and one of the founders of the Fatah movement in 1965. He was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in Beirut on April 10, 1973, along with two of his companions.

Adwan joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1952 and left it in 1954. After that, the idea of armed guerrilla action crystallized in him and he founded a guerrilla cell that included 12 fighters. He participated with the group in resisting the Israeli occupation of Gaza City in 1956.