Who is the leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah, companion of Haniyeh before his death in Iran?
The repercussions of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh following an airstrike in Tehran have sparked significant controversy in global political circles, with predictions of increased warfare in the region, leading to a full-scale war threatening global stability, as negotiations were nearing implementation according to the American vision.
Haniyeh, who had been living in Qatar for a long time and was killed yesterday in Iran, was in a highly strategic location, as this strike represents a challenge posed by Israel to Iran. This targeted attack in Tehran implies that Iran’s reaction will not be direct against Israel.
After the assassination of the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement, the Iranian news agency revealed the presence of another leader who was accompanying him.
According to the agency, Haniyeh and his delegation were staying in a residence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in northern Tehran. The agency also reported that the Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, and his delegation were also on another floor of the same targeted building. Who is Ziyad al-Nakhalah, who was accompanying Haniyeh?
Ziyad al-Nakhalah is a Palestinian politician who assumed the position of Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine in 2018, succeeding the late Ramadan Abdullah Shallah in the first internal elections held by the movement. He is considered an influential figure in the Islamic Jihad Movement’s relations at the Arab and Islamic levels.
In the 1980s, he founded the military wing of the movement, named “the Islamic Jihad Forces,” which became the “Al-Quds Brigades” in 2000 following the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
In 2014, the U.S. Department of State listed his name on the “terrorism” list due to his support for movements and organizations hostile to Israel and for sending weapons to Gaza. The United States set a reward of 5 million dollars for any information leading to his arrest.
He received his primary education in the city of Khan Younis, then continued his studies at the Orphans Institute before joining the schools of Gaza, where he completed his secondary education. He then joined the Teachers Institute in Gaza from which he obtained a teaching proficiency certificate.
He spent 14 years in several Israeli prisons before being released in a prisoner exchange in 1985 known as the Jibril Agreement. Al-Nakhalah supervised the prisoner exchange operation while still in captivity.
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He was chosen as a member of the high command of the Islamic Jihad Movement and was tasked with establishing the movement’s first military wing between 1985 and 1986.
