The mastermind of the Karen ship operation.. Who is the Sheikh of the released Palestinian prisoners, Fouad Al-Shobaki?

Ramallah

- "The prisoners are in a permanent revolution, all of them are martyrs with a suspended sentence, and everyone must work for their release," this is what the released prisoner, Fouad Al-Shobaki, the oldest Palestinian prisoner in the occupation prisons, nicknamed the Sheikh of the Prisoners, said upon his release from the occupation prisons.

Despite his extreme fatigue and advanced age, which prevented him from walking alone, Al-Shobaki appeared solid and in high spirits as he waved the sign of victory with his hands.

The prisoner, Al-Shobaki, was released - after 17 years in captivity - from the Tarqumiya crossing in the south of the West Bank, during which the occupation tried to manipulate the family by changing the place and date of his release, according to his daughter Rania, who added that he was scheduled to be released starting from the Al-Dhahiriya crossing.

In her interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Rania continued, "We have lived hours of anxiety since the morning, fearing that the occupation would delay his release or deport him to the Strip. We did not believe that he was liberated until after we saw him in front of us."

Rania is not the only one who was afraid of the occupation's attempt to disturb her joy with the release of her father after all these years. Her five brothers, who met for the first time since his arrest at his home in preparation for receiving him, had those fears.

The release of the sheikh of the prisoners took place via an ambulance due to his health condition (Anatolia)

For days, the prisoner’s house in the Al-Masayef neighborhood in the center of Ramallah (in the middle of the West Bank) was a beehive working to prepare his reception. However, the nine children and grandchildren whom Al-Shobaki only knew by names experienced contradictory feelings, between joy for the prisoner who would be among them after all this. The years, and the grief over the absence of their mother and the inability of their relatives from the Strip to receive him, as well as the fear that the occupation would back down from his release with any excuse it made up.

His daughter Rana - who came from Sweden with her children to receive him - says that they could not sleep all night amid concern about the occupation's measures to disturb their joy, and she continued in her interview with Al-Jazeera Net, "We expect anything from the occupation that could disturb our joy with his release."

The sheikh of the prisoners was released by ambulance due to his health condition, and he was transferred to the Muqata'a headquarters in Ramallah, after which he laid a wreath on the grave of the late President Yasser Arafat before heading to the family's home.

The descendants of the prisoner Fouad Al-Shobaki are preparing to receive him in Ramallah upon his release (Al-Jazeera)

Who is Fouad El Shobaki?

Al-Shobaki is considered one of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and a member of the Revolutionary Council of the Fatah movement, and one of the close associates of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat before his arrest. He was born in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in the Gaza Strip in 1940, and studied in its schools before being chased by the occupation. Before moving to Jordan, from there to Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, then Egypt, after which he returned to Gaza.

In Lebanon, the late President Arafat entrusted him with the financial responsibility of the Fatah movement, as Al-Shobaki had completed his university studies with a major in accounting from Cairo University, and during this period he worked on securing ammunition and weapons and delivering them to the fighters’ sites in Lebanon, and with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1995 he returned with the rank of major general to the sector Gaza, where he was responsible for establishing the military central financial administration, which he later headed.

After his return to his hometown in Gaza, Al-Shobaki enjoyed high popularity, as he was a man of reform that all Palestinian factions agreed upon, in addition to his interest in the sports sector and youth support, as he headed the Palestinian Equestrian Federation and a number of sports clubs in the Strip.

With the outbreak of the second intifada, Al-Shobaki worked under orders from President Arafat to secure arms for the resistance, and Israel accused him of being responsible for the largest purchase and smuggling of weapons and military equipment within what is known as the "Karine A" ship, which was intercepted by Israeli forces in the Red Sea in 2002.

At that time, Israel demanded the Palestinian Authority to hand over Al-Shobaki, but Arafat refused and kept him with him in the Muqata’a, Ramallah. However, as a result of American and Israeli pressure, the security services arrested him and put him in Jericho prison with a group of resistance fighters from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - headed by Secretary-General Ahmed Saadat - Israel accused them of participating in the assassination of the Israeli minister, Rehavam Ze'evi.

Al-Shobaki spent 4 years in the prisons of the authority, before the occupation forces stormed the prison on March 14, 2006, and arrested him with his companions, then he was brought to trial as the “mastermind” of the “Karen A” ship operation, in addition to his responsibility for financing the purchase of weapons. It was used against Israeli targets during the second intifada.

During the trial, the occupation intelligence demanded that he be imprisoned for 25 years, but the occupation court sentenced him to 20 years in prison, and after an appeal submitted by the prisoner’s lawyer in 2015, his sentence was reduced to 17 years, but Israel refused to release him as part of the prisoner release deals, and also rejected requests His family and human rights organizations applied for early release after his advanced age, specifically after his health deteriorated after he contracted prostate cancer, in addition to suffering from eye and stomach diseases and high blood pressure.

The Israeli occupation prevented Dalal - the granddaughter of the prisoner Fouad Al-Shobaki - from visiting her grandfather in his prison (Al-Jazeera)

Occupation phobia of the captive

According to his daughter, Rania, the occupation courts refused to release him on the grounds that he still posed a threat to Israel's security, although the first request for his release was submitted when Al-Shobaki was 79 years old.

Not only did Israel reject requests for release, but it was also delaying conducting the necessary medical examinations, and his daughter, Rania, confirms, "We do not know anything about his health condition now. For months, no medical examinations were conducted for him, and we are not allowed to obtain medical reports about his health condition to follow them up."

The occupation was not satisfied with imprisoning Al-Shobaki, as he pursued his family as well. When Al-Shobaki was arrested from Jericho, his family was still living in the Gaza Strip. A year later, his wife and children moved to live in Ramallah, which made it more difficult for the family to miss him, especially after the wife was prevented from visiting him in prison. regularly.

After years of family stability in Ramallah, another suffering began with the mother's illness and death in 2011. The occupation took advantage of this to take revenge on him when he tried to prevent the transfer of her body from Jordan, where she was receiving treatment for burial in the West Bank, according to Rania.

Israel also prevented Al-Shobaki from saying goodbye to his wife and refused the requests submitted by the family to do so.

It also did not allow his two sons, Hazem and Muhammad, to visit him except once a year, while preventing his grandchildren from visiting him.

The Al-Jazeera Net correspondent transmits her observations from the prisoner's family's home, so Dalal, who is six years old (from the descendants of Al-Shobaki), was singing with great joy, while carrying a picture of her grandfather in preparation for his reception, to tell Al-Jazeera Net that she did not know her grandfather, but she knew that he was a resistance fighter, and that is why Israel arrested him all these years. .