Martyr Nidal Farhat Ibn Khansaa Palestine Maryam Farhat (social networking sites)

A Palestinian resistance fighter and military commander in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). He was known in his battalion as the “rocket engineer” because he was the first to manufacture the “Qassam” missile. He lived his life resisting the Israeli occupation through his participation in several operations carried out by the brigades, and he supervised the Martyrdom operations, and contributed to the development of the rocket and missile industry.

He was martyred on Sunday, February 16, 2002, at the age of 31, due to a plane bomb that he was working on testing after obtaining it from a weapons supplier in the 1948 territories.

Birth and upbringing

Nidal Fathi Farhat was born on April 8, 1971 in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza. He is the son of the preacher and politician Maryam Muhaisen (Farhat), known as the “Khansa of Palestine” and the “Mother of Martyrs,” who was a representative in the Palestinian Legislative Council, and his father, Fathi Farhat, is a policeman. former.

He grew up in a family consisting of 5 male brothers and 4 sisters, and they are Iman, Inaam, Ilham and Enas. He is the brother of Muhammad Farhat, the perpetrator of the “Atasmouna” martyrdom operation (2002), the martyr Rawad Farhat (2005), the freed captive martyr Wissam Farhat (2023), and the captive Hossam and Moamen Farhat. From the guards of the martyr Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Since his childhood, his father used to accompany him and his brothers to the Al-Islah Mosque in the Shuja’iyah neighborhood, and he regularly attended the teaching and preaching sessions and the Holy Qur’an sessions.

Nidal spent about 4 years in Libya after traveling with his family when he was only 12 years old. The family then returned to the Gaza Strip with the outbreak of the first intifada in 1987.

He grew up in a house that was an incubator for resistance fighters and those persecuted by the Israeli occupation forces and a center for carrying out military operations against them. He was the most absent of his brothers from home and the most silent and persistent. He inherited from his mother a gentle nature, smooth words, and an aversion to controversy.

Nidal married a girl from his neighborhood who belongs to the Sheikh Khalil family, and he had 5 children with her (a boy and 4 girls). He named his son Imad after the name of his martyr leader, Imad Aql, and he became nicknamed “Abu Imad.”

Nidal Farhat was the first to bring the Qassam rocket into the West Bank (social media sites)

Study and training

Nidal finished his secondary education in the schools of his neighborhood in Shuja'iya, after which he joined the Islamic University in Gaza.

He began to direct his interest towards joining the ranks of the resistance more and more deeply during the university stage. This path had its first seeds planted in the primary and middle stages and grew during the secondary stage.

The sacrificial experience

Nidal participated in the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987, accompanied by his brothers, with the encouragement of their mother. During this period, he met a group of young men and accompanied them to the mosque, and he became a member of the Hamas movement.

He joined the ranks of the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades on February 5, 1993, and supervised a number of martyrdom operations, including sending his brother Muhammad Farhat to carry out an operation in the “Atzmouna” settlement on April 16, 2002, which resulted in the killing of 9 Israeli soldiers.

Among the tasks he also occupied was ensuring the shelter, transportation, and provision of safe houses for the resistance fighters. He worked for a period as a personal driver for the martyr Imad Aqel.

He also participated in most of the operations of launching mortar shells, "Al-Qassam 1" and "Al-Qassam 2" at Israeli settlements. The most prominent of these operations was the bombing of the Sderot settlement with 5 "Qassam 1" missiles, which led to the injury of 5 Israelis, on October 26. /October 2001.

He stopped participating in bombing operations by order of Sheikh Salah Shehadeh, who asked him to devote himself full time to developing the missile industry.

He was greatly influenced by Imad Aql, to the point that he requested in his will that he be buried in the same cemetery where Aql was buried. He had taken shelter in Nidal’s house in 1992 until he was martyred there at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces on November 24, 1993, after more than 200 soldiers surrounded him. Israeli.

Nidal Khansa Palestine's mother remembers how her son used to kiss the hands of the Qassam youth who blew up tanks.

Arrest

The Israeli occupation forces arrested Nidal several times in Ansar 2, Katzbaut, and Ashkelon prisons, for a total of 5 years. The Palestinian Authority also arrested him 3 times, with the aim of preventing him from launching rockets.

The Israeli army stormed and destroyed his home before arresting him in 1993 to sentence him to 3 years on charges of belonging to Hamas, possessing weapons, and harboring wanted persons.

The first Qassami missile

Nidal - who called himself the "Unruly Horse" - had a prominent role in the manufacture and development of missiles for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as he was credited with manufacturing the first resistance missile, which he called "Al-Qassam 1" in 2001.

After that, he developed this missile, the “Qassam 2” version, in cooperation with his comrade, “Tito Masoud,” with whom he carried out a number of jihadist operations, whether with the Qassam missile or mortar shells.

When Nidal decided to make the first missile, he went with Masoud to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to consult him about the matter, and he approved it. After making his first missile, he took it to his mother, who read to him the Holy Qur’an. He also took it to Sheikh Salah Shehadeh to show him his new invention, and he carried it in a bag and rode it in front of him, and he praised it. Sheikh Salah for his work.

Nidal transferred his experience in manufacturing Qassam missiles to the occupied West Bank, and was the first to introduce the Qassam missile there, where he worked to teach his comrades how to manufacture the Qassam missile and manufacture explosives by providing them with detailed illustrations and maps related to that.

Nidal Farhat was assassinated in 2003 while testing a drone that he later called “Ababil” (social networking sites)

Martyrdom

On February 16, 2003, the Israeli occupation assassinated him in a house in the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza after he was testing a small remote-operated drone whose parts he had brought from the 1948 territories. He was killed along with 5 of his companions, and the Qassam Brigades later named that drone “Ababil.”

Before his martyrdom, Nidal insisted that he alone collect the parts of the plane according to the instructions sent by him on the mobile phone, at a time when an Israeli surveillance plane was roaming the area, and moments later an explosion occurred due to an explosive device.

More than 50,000 Palestinians participated in his funeral, led by a number of Hamas leaders, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and Ismail Haniyeh.

Nidal was buried in the Eastern Cemetery, “Martyrs’ Cemetery,” according to his will. It is the cemetery in which his brother Muhammad and his friend Imad Akl were buried.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites