Shehada, Salah Mustafa

▪ 2003

      Palestinian guerrilla leader (b. 1953, Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip—d. July 22, 2002, Gaza City, Gaza Strip), was the commander of Izz al-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of the anti-Israeli Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement). Shehada openly endorsed armed attacks and suicide bombings. Nevertheless, many Palestinians admired him as an Islamic hero, and his charisma was responsible in part for increasing Hamas's ranks and support among the Palestinian populace. He was one of the original founders of Hamas in the early 1980s and was jailed twice by the Israeli government, which considered him the mastermind behind several bloody attacks, including a bombing at a religious school in March 2002 that left five Israeli students dead. Shehada, his wife, and a daughter were killed in an Israeli air strike against their home.

* * *