Nablus- At first glance, as soon as the assassination of “senior leadership figures” from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was announced in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and specifically in its southern suburbs, the acceleration in reporting and analyzing news began to identify the targeted leaders.
After some predictions and expectations, the certain news came about the targeting of the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, two leaders of the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the movement’s military wing, and 4 others from the movement’s cadres and sons.
One of the two Qassams was the martyr Azzam Al-Aqra’, who is no less dangerous to Israel than Sheikh Al-Arouri, as it has been pursuing him for many years and putting his name on its wanted list.
The assassination of Al-Aqra’, of course, constituted a great loss for the military leadership in particular and the movement in general, which not only mourned him in its statement alongside his comrades, but also Ismail Haniyeh, head of its political bureau, mourned him in a speech, in addition to the Qassami martyr Samir Fendi.
Educator of generations
The martyr Azzam Hosni Salah Al-Aqra’ (Abu Abdullah) was born on December 31, 1969, in the town of Qabalan, south of the city of Nablus, in the north of the West Bank, to a struggling and sacrificing family. He grew up in its mosques and was known as the “educator of generations” in those mosques. He memorized parts of From the Qur’an and memorized it as well.
He also received his primary and basic education in village schools until he reached high school, but he left school early despite his academic excellence, to help his father work and support his family, which consists of 9 people (5 males and 4 females) in addition to his parents.
Azzam was raised with good morals, and at a young age he was known for his courage, valor, patience, and sacrifice. He was loved and influential among the people of his village and the neighboring villages and the eastern and southern region of Nablus, which motivated him to engage in early struggle against the Israeli occupation. He clashed like the rest of the village’s youth with the occupation, and got involved in work. Resistant against him, especially with the outbreak of the first intifada in 1987, he emerged as one of the first to belong to the Hamas movement, which announced its launch at that time.
Experiences of arrest and deportation
The first arrest of the Qassami martyr, Azzam Al-Aqra’, was in 1989. He spent 9 months in detention on charges of resisting and confronting the occupation. He was also arrested in early 1992 and sentenced to administrative imprisonment for 6 months, because the occupation was unable to prove any charge against him, but he remained persecuted until he was arrested in December. In December of the same year, he was deported with more than 400 detainees from the leadership and cadres of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements to Marj al-Zuhur in southern Lebanon.
Al-Aqraa imbibed more of the thought of the Hamas movement, and derived from it the meanings of sacrifice and jihad, but he and his deported village son Salah Abu Salah, who is currently a member of the movement’s political bureau, chose to be among 17 who chose to remain to continue their struggle abroad, after the occupation allowed the deportees. Marj Al-Zuhur returned to their areas in Palestine.
The honorable martyr Al-Aqraa settled in Lebanon and continued his struggle there. He joined the military service and was one of the founders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and then he moved to Syria, but he left it after the events of the revolution in 2011 to Egypt and then Turkey.
There is no news of him
Azzam married the wife of his brother Azmi, who was martyred in 1997 during a national mission in the city of Sidon in Lebanon. Azmi joined the ranks of the Palestinian Revolution and the National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in 1978 in Lebanon, and participated in confronting the invasion of Beirut in 1982, and was wounded by 8 bullets.
The martyr Azzam gave birth to two sons (Abdullah and Abdul Rahman) when he was in his twenties, and he took care of them along with the sons of his brother, the martyr Azmi (Hosni and Duaa).
Regarding the period after Azzam’s deportation, his marriage, his life, and his resistance work, his younger brother, Hossam Al-Aqra’ (50 years old), says that there was very little information about him, and that their contact with him was cut off, out of concern for the safety of his family, and for fear of the occupation persecuting it. He added that “the last contact I had with him was It was 2006, and I had not seen him for 30 years, and we had not met as brothers and sisters since the first intifada except for one meeting, and my parents also died and he did not say goodbye to them.”
Hossam says that his mother, who died in 2004, was the link with Azzam, as she visited him for the last time in Syria in the year of her death, and through her they knew his latest news, especially since, by virtue of his position as a military leader, he does not appear in the media at all.
The family is targeted
The family remained a target of the occupation, its incursions, and its harassment. Hossam was arrested for 3 years, and all his brothers and sisters were banned from traveling, and they and their children were prevented from obtaining permits to enter Israel to work or move around.
The occupation never removed from its agenda the martyr Azzam Al-Aqraa, or any of his family members, so his intelligence summoned his brother Hossam 6 months ago, asked him about him with a warning, and tried to blackmail him with information about his martyr brother. Hossam says, “When I told them that I knew nothing about him, I asked the investigator what he had done.” How much? He replied: I would rather you not know.
With the start of the aggression against Gaza, the occupation arrested Hossam, his brother, and his sick brother-in-law, and detained them for several hours in the Huwwara camp, amid a field investigation, and a threat to communicate with the martyr Azzam.
All of this led to Hossam and his family’s conclusion that the Israeli occupation and its security services had put Azzam on the actual assassination list. They were “pursuing every free and honorable person,” as he described it. Hossam added, “That is why we were not surprised by the news of his martyrdom, and this is what he wished for and obtained.”
Strike and mourning
As soon as the people of the town of Qabalan heard the news of the martyrdom of her son, Azzam Al-Aqra’, angry marches took place, and a general strike and mourning was announced in the town. The Labor and National factions, especially the Fatah and Hamas movements, mourned it over loudspeakers in the mosques, and they were called to participate in the “House of Congratulations” to receive mourners. By his martyrdom.
Hossam Al-Aqraa concludes that his brother, the martyr Azzam, was able, through his resistance, to influence his generation, and that this is what was passed down to subsequent generations, and that with his martyrdom they confirm that “Azzam is like all the rest of the Palestinians, including the martyr, the prisoner, and the wounded, and that the occupation will not break the morale and steadfastness of this people.”