Ibrahim Hussein Abu Naja, whose house formed the first nucleus for manufacturing weapons for the benefit of the resistance (Al-Qassam Brigades military media)

Ibrahim Hussein Abu Naja, nicknamed “Abu al-Mu’tasim,” is one of the commanders of the engineering corps in the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). He is considered the most prominent person in charge of the Israeli occupation’s weapons recycling project. He worked to neutralize the occupation’s shells and missiles that it fired at the Gaza Strip. Gaza and recycling what did not explode, and included it within the weapons manufacturing system of the Palestinian resistance until it was martyred in 2017 by an accidental explosion during preparation and processing at one of the Qassam sites in Rafah.

Birth and upbringing

Ibrahim Abu Naja was born in the mid-1960s of the 20th century into a poor immigrant activist family from the Arab “Najwiyya” region in the 1948 territories. He studied the primary and preparatory stages in the schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and completed high school in government schools.

Ibrahim Hussein Abu Naja was arrested by the occupation in 1992 due to his activity in the First Intifada (Palestinian Information Center)

Study and scientific training

He studied English for 3 years, then moved on to study Arabic, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in it in 1991.

Political experience

Abu Naja joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1985, and was arrested in the occupation prisons in 1992 on the grounds of his activity in the First Intifada and resistance to Israeli soldiers for 3 and a half years.

When he was released, he joined the National Security Forces in 1995, and rose through the military ranks until he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, and almost attained the rank of colonel in 2006, but he was threatened with dismissal from his job several times on the grounds of his affiliation with the Hamas movement, which prevented him from doing so.

He was chosen in 2006 by the tenth government to assume the position of command of the National Security Forces on the Palestinian border with Egypt for two years, and he played a prominent role in combating drugs and contraband smugglers.

His activity was renewed in the ranks of the Qassam Brigades with the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000. He was one of the most prominent engineers who contributed to the development of the Qassam weapon, and his fingerprints were clear in all types of weapons developed by the brigades.

He devoted a room of his two-room house to military manufacturing, and it served as the first nucleus of manufacturing, and he turned it into a workshop where packages and wires were piled up.

He held many positions in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the most recent of which was his command of the engineering corps in the brigades - the Rafah Brigade, and his role was prominent in most of the military operations against the Israeli occupation inside the Gaza Strip and on its borders, especially those that require the preparation of explosives, whether barrels, bombs, or car bombs, as he was. He has a prominent role in developing local weapons manufactured by the Al-Qassam Brigades over a period of about 17 years.

He was one of the few experts in explosives engineering, and contributed to serving many factions in military manufacturing and exchanging experience with them, especially with the Islamic Jihad Movement, the Popular Resistance, and other factions.

Jihadist positions

Among his notable positions mentioned in his biography published on the Al-Qassam Brigades’ website is that he was injured in 2006 while training a group of mujahideen to shoot hand grenades, when one of the bombs accidentally fell near the mujahideen. All he had to do was sacrifice himself and rush towards it to throw it away in order to save the rest of the mujahideen. It exploded near him, and he spent two years on a recovery bed, and this act was recorded in the history of his heroic record, and as soon as he recovered from his injury, he resumed his work in the midst of the dangers of explosives.”

Numerous assassination attempts

He was subjected to several assassination attempts that failed, until his companions began calling him “the one with seven souls” due to his escape from assassination and his adventures in dismantling bombs and explosive devices.

During the Battle of Al-Furqan in 2008, Israeli warplanes targeted his house in the Al-Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah, as he was one of the leaders of the Al-Qassam Brigades.

He was also subjected to an assassination attempt in the 2014 war and was injured many times during his jihadist career.

Ibrahim Hussein Abu Naja was one of the most prominent trainers and founders of the training work in the Al-Qassam Brigades (Palestinian Information Center)

Jobs and responsibilities

Abu Naja participated in preparing many specific operations carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades, most notably:

  • Participation in the manufacture of barrels and containers for the Borj (Hardoun) Tunnel Operation, December 17, 2003.

  • Participation in the manufacture of barrels and containers during the Rafah crossing operation, December 12, 2004.

  • Participation in the manufacture of barrels and containers for the “Mahfuza” site operation, June 27, 2004.

  •  Participation in preparing mechanisms and explosive devices for Operation Explosion Harness (Kerem Shalom), April 19, 2008.

  • He led several files in the Al-Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip, including the Engineering Corps.

  • He supervised the Al-Shuhadaa training site, west of Rafah.

  • He was one of the most prominent trainers and founders of training work in the Al-Qassam Brigades.

  • He is considered the most prominent person in charge of the Israeli occupation weapons recycling project, as he worked to neutralize the occupation shells and missiles that it fired at the Gaza Strip, and recycles what did not explode and included them within the weapons manufacturing system of the Palestinian resistance.

Death

He was martyred on June 7, 2017, at the age of 51, in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, as a result of an accidental explosion during preparation and preparation at one of the Qassam sites, while 3 other people were injured.

His funeral witnessed a remarkable participation of the military arms of the Al-Qassam Brigades, along with the leaders of the security services at the level of the Gaza Strip, presented by the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, leaders and members of the movement’s Political Bureau, and figures from various factions.

Source: websites