Last updated: 5/31/202410:18 AM (Mecca time)
Abu Youssef Al-Quqa is a Palestinian resistance leader. He was born in 1962 and grew up in the Gaza Strip. His name rose to prominence as one of the wanted resistance fighters to the occupation. He defected from the Palestinian National Authority and founded the Popular Resistance Committees and its military wing, the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, at the beginning of the second intifada.
Al-Quqa was responsible for a number of operations that caused deaths and injuries among the occupation soldiers. He was credited with manufacturing the Nasser 3 missile. He was assassinated in 2006 in a car bombing.
Birth and upbringing
Abd Youssef Al-Quqa was born in 1962 in Gaza, and grew up in a modest house in the Beach refugee camp, close to the home of the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Ismail Haniyeh.
He left the Gaza Strip persecuted in 1990 for Egypt, and moved between several Arab countries. He returned to Gaza with the return of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, accompanied by his family, consisting of a wife and 8 children.
Study and scientific training
He studied the basic stage in Gaza schools, obtained his secondary school degree from Carmel School in Gaza City, then obtained a BA in Arabic Language from the Faculty of Arts at Beirut Arab University, Alexandria branch.
The jihadist experience
Al-Quqa’s role became prominent during the first Intifada. He was one of the field commanders in the squares. The occupation pursued him and its agents and agents chased him. He was forced to flee by swimming and diving to Egypt in 1990 with his friend, the martyr Imad Hammad, and there he was known by his nickname “Abu Youssef.”
He then moved between several Arab countries, including Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, and returned to the Gaza Strip in 1994 with the return of the Palestinian Authority after the Oslo Accords, but he rejected it and did not agree with the concessions made therein.
He began his work in the security apparatus of the Palestinian Authority as an officer, but his relationship with the authority and the security apparatus was not good, as those close to him were quoted as “rejecting the policy of the security apparatus and the arrests with which it targeted members of the two Islamic movements (Hamas and Jihad), which caused a crisis between him and the leadership of the apparatus, and he was ordered to “By locking him up.”
New organization
With the beginning of the Intifada, and as a result of the rejection of the policies of the Authority and the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), Al-Quqa, along with a group of military leaders – who had the same ideology – formed a new organization called “Popular Resistance Committees” in September 2000.
The work of the committees is based on an Islamic doctrine that aims to resist the occupation, keep the banner of Islam high, work and resist to liberate the entire land of Palestine, and enable refugees to have the right to return, according to the founding statement issued by the committees.
A number of nationalists who rejected Fatah’s policy joined the committees, in addition to activists and members of various organizations who believe in resistance as the only solution to the issue.
Al-Quqa then established, along with the military commanders, a military wing of the committees called the “Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades,” and the task of leading it was assigned to him. He was the commander-in-chief of the brigades due to his inclination toward jihadist work more than political and media work.
The work of the Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades became prominent during the first two years of the Second Intifada, which represented the peak of their work, as Al-Quqa and those with him devoted themselves to planning various resistance operations, especially the four operations in which the brigades targeted the Israeli “Merkava” tank, and a number of soldiers were killed in the attack and others were wounded. This brought the brigades into the Israeli targeting circle.
Rocket industry
The Palestinian factions began manufacturing missiles with the development of military action, and the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades followed suit, manufacturing the “Al-Nasser 1” and “Al-Nasser 2” missiles. As for the “Al-Nasser 3” missile, Abu Yusef had the credit for manufacturing it, according to what was confirmed by a number of commanders in Gluteals.
The brigades use the “Al-Nasser 3” missile to target the Israeli settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.
Al-Quqa enjoyed a strong relationship and high coordination with one of the most prominent engineers of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of the Hamas movement), Adnan al-Ghoul, who is credited with leading the project to develop the Qassam missile arsenal.
Assassination
The Israeli occupation forces attempted to assassinate Al-Quqa 3 times during the Second Intifada. The first time, they targeted his car in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, but he survived.
Then his house was targeted twice in a row, once with an Apache helicopter, and again with naval boats. He also survived and his name was placed on the most wanted lists from the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, March 31, 2006, the occupation forces were able to assassinate him, as their agents were able to booby-trap a car that was detonated when Abu Youssef Al-Quqa passed by it, heading to the mosque to perform Friday prayers in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
While the occupation army was accused of involvement behind the assassination of Al-Quqa, the occupation spokesman denied any connection between Israel and the operation.
The spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, Abu Abeer, accused the official in the Preventive Security Service, Tariq Abu Rajab, of being behind the assassination, on April 1, 2006, and Abu Abeer pledged to submit documents to the government at the time.
About two months after the assassination, on May 26, 2006, the spokesman for the Al-Nasser Brigades, Salah al-Din, announced that the Ministry of Interior had informed the leadership of the Popular Committees of the completion of the investigation into the case of the assassination of Commander Abu Yusef al-Quqa, and reaching results related to confirming Israel’s responsibility for the operation, as a car from Subaru kindly assisted its customers in the sector who facilitated and carried out the task.
The car was detonated remotely by a plane that was monitoring Al-Quqa’s movements.
