13 Palestinians were martyred in the Israeli strikes on Gaza on Tuesday. The aggression, dubbed by Israeli occupation as “Operation Shield and Arrow”, targeted three senior Islamic Jihad commanders.
Al-Manar offers breif biographies on the martyred commanders.
Martyr Jihad Ghannam
Jihad Shaker al-Ghannam, 62, the Secretary of the al-Quds Brigades’ Military Council.
Born in Gaza’s Rafah, Ghannam had worked in Yasser Arafat’s Fatah and the Popular Resistance Committees, Palestinian resistance groups that predate the emergence of Islamic Jihad.
He took part and oversaw dozens of resistance operations against Israeli occupation forces following the Second Intifada in 2000. Ghannam had major role in establishing Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance group.
He had been wanted for over 20 years, and had survived five previous assassination attempts, the last during which his legs were amputated.
The Israeli occupation accused Ghannam of being responsible for coordinating the transfer of funds and weapons from the Islamic Jihad to Hamas.” It called him one of the most senior members of Islamic Jihad.
Martyr Tareq Ibrahim Ezzeddine
Born in 1974 in Araba, near the West Bank city of Jenin. He joined ranks of the Islamic Jihad resistance at an early age. In 1987 he was arrested by Israeli occupation forces over taking part in acts of resistance during the First Intifada.
He had prominent role in establishing the Islamic Jihad cells in the West Bank.
Ezzeddine was one of the Islamic Jihad commanders who participated in the 2002 Battle of Jenin, when resistance fighters heroically confronted a 10-day brutal Israeli invasion of the refugee camp.
In the same year he was arrested by occupation forces and was sentenced to life in prison. Ezzeddine spent 13 years of his sentence before being released in a swap deal and expelled to Gaza in 2011.
In Gaza, he had a communication role between the Islamic Jihad leadership and the resistance cells in the West Bank.
He was known for being the Islamic Jihad spokesman in the coastal enclave.
The Jerusalem Post identified Ezzeddine as the commander who was responsible for the communications between the movement and its branches in the West Bank.
“He was responsible for transferring funds and coordinating incitement efforts” in the occupied territories, according to the JPost.
Martyr Khalil Al-Bahitini
Born in 1978 in Gaza city, Al-Bahitini joined the resistance ranks at early age.
He was arrested by Israeli occupation forces and spent several years in Israeli jails.
Al-Bahitini was the head of Al-Quds Brigades’ War Media and had major role in developing the media developments of the resistance group.
He was a member of Al-Quds Brigades’ Military Council and established the group’s security body. He was chosen to lead the Northern Command of Al-Quds Brigades in the Gaza strip following martyrdom of Tayseer AL-Jaabari in August 2022.
Israeli media described Al-Bahitini as the “most senior operational commander in the resistance group who was responsible for the rocket fire toward the occupied territories in the past month.”
Source: Al-Manar English Website
