Ayman Abu Khalil

Ayman Muhammad Abd al-Rahim Abu-Khalil, known as Abu Hamza, is a senior member of Hamas’s military wing abroad, and commands the organization’s terror activity in the West Bank. He was born in 1972 in Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem. He joined Hamas and took part in several terror attacks in 1994. On April 20, 1994, he participated, together with other Hamas cell members, in the kidnapping and stabbing-murder of the soldier Shahar Simani. On July 6, 1994, he was involved, with other cell members, in the kidnapping of the soldier Arik Frankenthal, who was shot and murdered during the kidnapping. On August 12, 1994, he was arrested by security forces after carrying out a shooting attack toward a checkpoint, during which policemen were shot. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2011 he was released as part of the Shalit deal and was expelled to Turkey. From abroad, he continues to engage in directing attacks in the West Bank, among other things by transferring large sums of money for the activity of Hamas’s military wing and for organizing weapons-smuggling from abroad into the areas of Judea and Samaria.