PNN – Mohammad Zaif, commander-in-chief of the Martyr Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military branch of the Hamas movement, by planning the “Al-Aqsa Storm” operation, which he commanded together with his brothers, destroyed the apparent invincibility of the Israeli army.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, citing the Palestine Information Center, after a life of jihad and resistance that lasted for several decades, “Mohammed Zaif” achieved the honor of martyrdom and left behind a rich history of presence in the Palestinian military arena, and his role in this arena was completely remembered.
The founding generation
Mohammad Zaif’s name has been associated with the Palestinian resistance since the 1990s. He was one of the first founders of the Martyr Ezzeddin Qassam Battalions and became a symbol of bravery and secret activity that had an effect in each of the Palestinian military fields. It was seen from him.
Zaif was the commander of the Qassam battalions for more than three decades and survived several assassination operations to become a nightmare for the Zionists, which took away the restful sleep from their eyes.
He changed the equations of the conflict every time until it came to the Battle of Al-Aqsa, which humiliated and humiliated the Zionist enemy and proved its strategic failure despite all the attacks and genocides.
Birth and beginning of the resistance
“Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri” known as “Mohammed Zaif” was born in 1965 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip in a family that migrated from the occupied lands in 1948 and settled in the Khan Younis camp.
His father worked in the field of producing pillows and quilts. Muhammad completed his elementary, middle and high school education like other Palestinian refugees in Khan Yunis camp schools.
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Joining Hamas
Mohammad Zaif became a member of Hamas since his childhood and was one of its active members who participated in the activities of the Great Intifada – which began in late 1987 – and in the summer of 1989, he was accused of joining the military wing of Hamas, which Sheikh “Salah Shahadeh” had founded.
At that time, this organization was called “Hamas Mujahidan” and later its name was changed to “Qassam Brigades”.
Zaif remained in prison for a year and a half until the Zionist regime released him in 1991 to become a member of the core of the Qassam battalions, through which the military structure of Hamas was formed.
After the assassination of Imad Aql, who played a prominent role in the martyrdom operations of November 1993, Zaif’s role became more prominent and he was given the responsibility of commanding the Qassam battalions.
Zaif also played an important role in the transfer of engineer Yahya Ayash, one of the explosives experts, from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip after the intensification of the siege against him in the West Bank in order to use his experience in the production of explosives.
Yahya Ayash was also assassinated in 1996 by a bombed phone, but Zaif did not leave him unanswered and sent “Hasan Salameh” to the West Bank and killed nearly 60 Zionists during a resistance operation under his command.
Nevertheless, he was able to be released later from the prisons of the Gaza Security Protection Organization and return to the arms of the Qassam battalions and prepare himself for more operations until the Al-Aqsa Intifada began in September 2000.
With the release of Sheikh Salah Shehadeh in 2001, Zaif entrusted him with the command of the military branch, and Shehadeh made him responsible for the military industries of the Qassam battalions, which was able to develop this department well.
Command of the military branch
After the martyrdom of Shahadeh in the summer of 2002, the leadership of the Hamas movement once again put Zaif in charge of the military branch of this movement. Three months later, he was exposed to the second assassination operation, so that his car was bombed in Al-Sheikh neighborhood, and two of his bodyguards were martyred, and he was also seriously injured, but he survived this operation safely.
Palestinian sources announced in the summer of 2006 that Zaif was assassinated for the third time.
At that time, the Hamas movement had captured a Zionist soldier named Gilad Shalit, and in response, the Zionist regime bombarded one of the houses, and it was said that Zaif was seriously injured, but the Qassam battalions did not confirm this news.
Al-Aqsa storm operation command
On the 7th of October 2023, Zaif announced the beginning of the Al-Aqsa storm battle and was responsible for supervising the implementation of this operation, and at the same time, he also played a role in the battlefield until he achieved the honor of martyrdom.
One of the most important reasons for the Battle of al-Aqsa storm was the behavior of the Zionist regime and its plans to end the Palestinian-Zionist conflict, exerting control over Quds and its sanctuaries, planning for spatial and temporal division, and building a temple in this holy place.