From the right, Faiq Al-Mabhouh, Saleh Al-Arouri, Samer Abu Daqqa, and Refaat Al-Arair (social networking sites)

The Israeli occupation targeted many prominent civilian, military, and political figures in the Gaza Strip during its aggression against the Strip, which it began immediately after Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which was launched by the Palestinian resistance at dawn on October 7, 2023, against the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.

The following are the most prominent figures cited by Israeli attacks:

Ayman Nofal

A security and intelligence leader in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). He was born in 1965 in the Bureij camp. He is considered one of the most prominent leaders of the joint room of the resistance factions, and a close associate of Commander Marwan Issa, the second man in the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

He was a member of the General Military Council of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and commander of the Central Governorate Brigade. The Israeli occupation ranked him fourth on the list of those wanted for assassination.

He was one of the first generation of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and one of those who led the military action during the two intifadas (the first in 1987 and the second in 2000), and the occupation holds him responsible for preparing several martyrdom fighters who caused losses and injuries in Israel.

He was arrested three times in 1991 in Israeli occupation prisons, and by the Palestinian Authority in 1997. In 2008, he and two young men who were with him in Egypt were arrested on charges of possessing a weapon with them during an attempt by Palestinians to cross the Rafah land crossing to break the siege, following the collapse of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egyptian territory.

He continued to be detained without being formally charged despite the release of those who were with him. He was subjected to psychological and physical torture, according to witnesses who were with him. He was officially released after 3 and a half years of detention.

He led the intelligence service in the Al-Qassam Brigades for several years before assuming command of its military operations. His last stop was in command of the Al-Qassam Brigades’ Al-Wusta Governorate Brigade.

Ayman Nofal was assassinated on October 17, 2023, by an Israeli air strike that targeted him in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Jamila Al-Shanti

A Palestinian politician, born in 1957 in Jabalia Camp. Her family was displaced from the city of Al-Majdal, near occupied Ashkelon. She is the first woman to become a member of the political bureau of the Hamas movement. She was a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She headed the feminist work in the movement for many years.

She joined the Muslim Brotherhood during her university studies at Ain Shams University in Egypt in 1977. She was one of the first generation who founded the Hamas movement in 1987. She served as president of the movement’s Women’s Shura Council for two consecutive terms.

Her name became prominent when she succeeded in breaking a siege imposed by the Israeli occupation on a number of Palestinian resistance fighters who took refuge in a mosque in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, by leading a women’s march on November 3, 2006, which made her one of the most prominent names on the Israeli assassination list.

Three days after the success of the march, Israeli occupation aircraft targeted her home, resulting in the martyrdom of members of her family, while she survived because she was not present at the targeted location at the time.

Jamila Al-Shanti was martyred as a result of an air strike launched by Israeli occupation aircraft on her home on October 18, 2023.

I raised the juniper

A Palestinian academic, poet, and translator, he was born in 1979 in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of the Gaza Strip. He holds a doctorate in English literature from the University of Putra, Malaysia, in 2017. He was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, and one of the pillars of the English department at the Palestinian Information Center.

He chose to be the English language, the spokesman for his homeland, to convey the reality and reality of the Israeli occupation. Since he started teaching in 2007, he has been keen to teach his students the rules of telling the Palestinian story, which mixes life and resistance, in order to convey it to the world in the English language that he mastered and taught as a profession.

He contributed to establishing the “We Are Not Numbers” website in order to document the tales and stories of martyrs following the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014. He was also keen to translate everything written on this page into English to reach the largest possible number of recipients.

Rifaat Al-Arair was martyred on December 7, 2023, as a result of an Israeli air strike on his sister’s house in the northern Gaza Strip, where he was present.

Samer Abu Daqqa

A journalist, photographer, and editing technician for Al Jazeera. His nickname is “Abu Yazan.” He was born in 1978 in the south of the Gaza Strip. He lived in the town of Abasan near Khan Yunis. He joined the channel in 2004, and is considered one of the first to contribute to establishing the Al Jazeera office in Palestine.

He led the technical team for Al Jazeera's office in Gaza, and accompanied his colleague Tamer Al-Mashal on journalistic missions and operations outside Palestine, including covering events in Syria, Egypt, and others. He filmed films, humanitarian reports, and many media productions for Al Jazeera's various platforms.

Samer Abu Daqqa was targeted on December 15, 2023, along with his colleague Wael Al-Dahdouh while they were covering the Israeli bombing of Farhana School in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. He was martyred after being trapped and bleeding for 6 hours in the vicinity of the school.

Abu Daqqa was wounded in this bombing twice. He was able to move to another place after his first injury, before an Israeli reconnaissance plane targeted him for the second time and directly killed him, along with a number of civilians and 3 men from the Civil Defense.

Saleh Al-Arouri

A Palestinian politician, born in 1966 in the town of Aroura, located near the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. He is considered the second man in the Hamas movement. He contributed to the founding of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He spent 18 years in Israeli occupation prisons. He was included on the American list of “international terrorists” in 2015.

He led Islamic student work at Hebron University from 1985 until his arrest in 1992, and joined the Hamas movement after its founding in late 1987.

The Israeli army arrested him administratively during the period between 1990 and 1992, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison on charges of forming the first cells of the Qassam Brigades in the West Bank, then he was released in 2007. He was re-arrested after 3 months for 3 years, then he was released in 2010 and deported outside Palestine.

In 2014, Israel accused him of planning to kidnap and kill 3 Israelis in the West Bank, and this matter was one of the reasons that made the occupation launch its war on Gaza in 2014.

He was elected deputy head of the movement's political bureau in October 2017, then re-elected on July 31, 2021, with him assuming the presidency of the movement in the West Bank.

Saleh Al-Arouri was assassinated on January 2, 2024, in an Israeli drone attack that targeted a building housing an office for the Hamas movement in Beirut.

Major General Faiq Al-Mabhouh

He is the Director General of Central Operations at the Ministry of Interior and National Security in the Gaza Strip. He was born on December 18, 1968. He lived in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. His origins go back to the town of Tima near Ashkelon, where his father immigrated from in 1948 before settling in the camp.

He participated in school student demonstrations during the First Intifada in 1987, and joined Hamas in 1988 at the beginning of its founding. In 1991, he joined the first military unit in the Al-Qassam Brigades.

He participated in carrying out military operations against the Israeli occupation army, the most famous of which was the Karni crossing operation, accompanied by the martyr Imad Aqel.

He was arrested after the operation and was subjected to interrogation and torture. He was accused of opening fire on the occupation forces center in the Jabalia camp and pursuing agents. In late 1994, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He joined the police force in the Gaza Strip after his release from prison, and rose through the ranks until he held the rank of Major General.

Faeq Al-Mabhouh was martyred on March 18, 2024 after a clash between him and the Israeli forces coinciding with their storming of Al-Shifa Hospital, where he was with a number of his nephews near the hospital, two days after his successful efforts to bring 15 trucks of aid into the northern Gaza Strip.

Ismail Al-Nono

A reform man, and one of the notables and mukhtars of the Gaza Strip. He was a businessman who owned the “Alpha Electronics” company, which specialized in communications services. He played a prominent role in social and charitable work and reform, as he was the head of the reform committee for the “Salah al-Din” area, east of the Strip, in addition to being a mukhtar. To the Nono family.

He regularly sponsored many reform ceremonies among Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip. He also participated in seminars organized by governmental and private institutions on the importance of “strengthening the societal fabric and promoting civil peace.”

His home and company headquarters were destroyed in February 2024 by the occupation forces. He categorically rejected the offers of the Israeli occupation authorities to cooperate with them.

On March 20, 2024, Israeli occupation aircraft targeted the house where he lived with his wife, two of his children, and his grandchildren, leading to the martyrdom of all of them.

Source: Al Jazeera