Musa Abu Marzouq

Mousa Muhammad Abu Marzouk is one of the leaders of Hamas, a member of the organization’s political bureau, and head of its International Relations Office. He was born in 1951 in the Rafah refugee camp. In 1978, he was among the founders of the Islamic University of Gaza. After his studies in Cairo, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, he worked as an engineer for a water and electricity company in the United Arab Emirates, and later as an engineer for an oil company. He then moved to the United States, where he studied industrial engineering, received a bachelor’s degree, and later a master’s degree in construction management from the University of Colorado. He completed his PhD at Louisiana Tech University. He began his political activity within the Muslim Brotherhood in 1986. When Hamas was established in 1987, he joined its ranks, and in the early 1990s transferred funds from the United States to Hamas operatives in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to finance their activities. In 1992, he was elected head of the Hamas political bureau and carried out his duties from Amman, the capital of Jordan, until he was expelled from the country on June 30, 1995. After his expulsion from Jordan, he went to the United States, where he was arrested upon arrival at the airport. Israel requested his extradition but later withdrew the request, and he remained in detention in the United States until his release on May 4, 1997. After his release, he was elected deputy head of the Hamas political bureau and returned to reside in Jordan. On November 21, 1999, he was expelled from Jordan for the second time, after which he lived in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Qatar. He was among the founders of the “Al-Quds Institution,” established in 2001 in Beirut, a member of the Committee of the Islamic National Conference, and responsible for fundraising in the United States. Abu Marzouk is considered one of the ideologues of Hamas’s leadership and frequently represents the organization’s position in the international arena and the media.