Zaher Jabarin

A senior member of the Hamas organization and one of the founders of the movement’s military wing in the West Bank. Born in 1968 in the town of Salfit in the West Bank. In his youth, he was influenced by the writings of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. He studied Islamic law at An-Najah University in Nablus, and with the establishment of the Hamas movement in 1987, he joined the organization’s ranks. During the First Intifada, he was responsible for distributing Hamas’s first leaflet in Judea and Samaria. He is credited with recruiting the engineer Yahya Ayyash into Hamas. He was a partner in planning the kidnapping and murder of Nissim Toledano. Among other things, he was responsible for planning a series of attacks in Ramat Efal, Jerusalem, and the village of Bruqin in Samaria. He was arrested on April 1, 1993, and sentenced to life imprisonment plus 35 years. During his years in prison, Jabarin engaged in translating books from Hebrew to Arabic – but even from within the prison walls, he continued to attempt to direct Hamas attacks in the West Bank. He was released from prison in 2011 as part of the Shalit deal and was deported to Turkey, where he joined Saleh al-Arouri and dealt with managing Hamas’s funding through various means, including extensive money laundering. He is responsible for the prisoners’ affairs in Hamas and participated in negotiations to achieve hostage deals.