Al-Qassami leader Tito Masoud joined Hamas since the Stone Intifada (Al Jazeera)

A commander in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). He was born in 1967 in Jabalia Camp. He joined the ranks of the movement coinciding with the first intifada in 1987, then joined the al-Qassam Brigades in 1994. He participated in the manufacture of missiles and explosive and guided devices, and in Manufacturing the first Qassam missile, “Qassam 1,” with Nidal Farhat. The Israeli occupation assassinated him in 2003.

Birth and upbringing

Tito Mahmoud Masoud was born on April 8, 1967. His family was displaced from the town of Deir Sneid following the Nakba of 1948, and settled in Jabalia camp in the northeastern Gaza Strip. Tito adopted the cause of liberating Palestine when he was 20 years old, when the Stone Intifada (1987-1993) began in the camp where he and his family lived. He frequented the camp mosque often, where the Hamas movement’s speeches were echoing around, paving the way for armed resistance and existential conflict.

Struggle experience

Masoud engaged in operations to chase Israeli occupation patrols and throw stones at them, coinciding with the first intifada, and he took upon himself the responsibility of observing and observing foot patrols in the camp’s neighborhoods.

He joined the ranks of the Hamas movement in 1987 and engaged in movement work in it, from writing slogans on the walls, to distributing data, to following and tracking agents within the region.

The first military operation in which he participated was a targeting operation on the eastern line of Jabalia in 1987, where he and a number of Al-Qassam Brigades fighters attacked with machine guns one of the occupation patrols stationed in the area, and the operation led to the killing of two occupation soldiers.

In 1989, the occupation forces launched a massive arrest campaign that included leaders of the movement, including Tito. He spent 4 months in the Negev Desert Prison. After his release, he joined the deterrence groups affiliated with the Hamas movement, which were then known as the Islamic Thunderbolt groups, and worked to monitor and eliminate agents cooperating with the occupation forces.

Tito Masoud participated in the manufacture of the first Qassam missile, which was called “Qassam 1” (social networking sites)

The Israeli occupation arrested him again on December 24, 1990, and he spent 3 years in Israeli prisons. In 1994, he joined the military apparatus of the Hamas movement (Al-Qassam Brigades), and participated in several military operations, until Israel classified him as one of the names that pose a threat to its security.

In 1996, the Hamas movement faced a massive arrest campaign launched by the Palestinian Authority, targeting Masouda and a number of his fellow political and military leaders of the movement. He spent 4 years in the prison of the Preventive Security Service, which was headed by Muhammad Dahlan. This campaign was described as the “1996 strike,” in which prisoners were subjected to harsh torture methods during their detention.

Masoud had a prominent role in the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000. Two days before it broke out, he opened fire on a military checkpoint of occupation soldiers in the Netzarim settlement - the last Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip - killing two of them.

Military experience

Masoud was known as the engineer of guided explosive devices in the Qassam Brigades, and he excelled with exceptional skills in engineering explosives and bombs, and manufacturing various types of explosive devices, including guided and ground-based devices, mortar shells, and anti-personnel energies.

After the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Masoud accompanied the Commander-in-Chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Salah Shehadeh, for more than 7 months, as he was part of his protection squad and participated with him in all missions.

Achievements

The origin of the idea of ​​manufacturing Qassam missiles goes back to Nidal Farhat and Tito Masoud, who manufactured the first Qassam missile, and called it the Qassam (1), and its range at that time reached 2.5 kilometers. Four months later, specifically on October 26, 2001, the first home-made rocket, “Al-Qassam 1,” fell inside the “Sderot” settlement, about 1.5 kilometers from the Gaza Strip.

The Qassam Brigades adopted this operation, and Tito Masoud, along with his comrade Nidal Farhat, finished manufacturing Qassam missiles (2) and (3) before they were martyred. Since then, the Hamas movement in Gaza began manufacturing local rockets and supplying them to the Palestinian resistance factions during the period (2001-2005).

Assassination

On the evening of Wednesday, June 11, 2003, an Israeli Apache helicopter targeted a car carrying Tito Masoud and Suhail Abu Nahl as they were passing through the Shujaiya Junction in the Gaza Strip, leading to their immediate martyrdom.

Five civilians who were nearby were also martyred in the operation. Tito's body was held on Thursday, June 12, 2003, and buried in the Eastern Martyrs' Cemetery in the Gaza Strip.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites