On April 17, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) marks the 20th anniversary of the Israeli military’s liquidation of the leader of this terrorist organization, Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi.
However, no public events dedicated to this date are taking place in Gaza. The war unleashed by Hamas on the behests of Rantisi on October 7, 2023 continues for the 194th day, and residents of the sector have no time to remember the late “head of the Politburo” of the Islamists.
Hamas celebrates the “anniversary” with publications on its websites and social networks.
Curriculum Vitae
Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi was born on October 23, 1947 in Ibna (now Yavneh, south of Tel Aviv) and had 11 siblings. In 1948, the Rantisi family fled to the Gaza Strip (then Egyptian territory) and settled in Khan Yunis.
In 1965, Abd al-Aziz, after graduating from high school, went to Alexandria, where he entered the university at the Faculty of Medicine and graduated as a certified pediatrician. In 1972, he returned to the Gaza Strip, where he worked as a pediatrician. In 1974-76 he continued his studies at Alexandria University.
He was one of the founders of the Islamic Center in Gaza (1973); in 1976 he returned to the Gaza Strip, where he was active in politics and continued to work as a doctor in Khan Yunis.
In 1978-1988 he taught at the Islamic University and at the same time worked at the Khan Yunis Hospital.
In 1987, he became one of the six founders of the Islamic movement Hamas, which declared its goal to be a “Middle East without a Jewish state.”
In the same year he was among the leaders of the first Palestinian “intifada”. In March 1988, he was arrested by Israeli intelligence services and was in prison until September 1990. He loved to remember his prison past (he at one time shared a cell with Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who became the spiritual leader of Hamas).
In December 1992, he was expelled by the Israeli authorities from the Gaza Strip to Marj al-Zuhur (southern Lebanon), where he again found himself surrounded by “comrades-in-arms” from Hamas – he worked as a “representative of refugees”, advanced due to his good knowledge of the English language, education and proficiency oratory, in Lebanon Rantisi became the de facto “speaker of Hamas.”
In December 1993, he returned to the Gaza Strip and was soon arrested by Israeli intelligence services and was in prison until April 1997. In 1998, he was arrested by Palestinian intelligence services (in April 1998, Rantisi accused the Palestinian Authority of collaborating with Israel and involvement in the destruction of one of the “Hamas engineers” Muhaddin Sharif, he made calls for the overthrow of Arafat). In February 2000 he was released; in July 2000, he was again arrested by Palestinian security services on charges of “preparing an armed uprising.” In December 2000, a few months after the start of the Al-Aqsa intifada, he was released from prison by personal order of Yasser Arafat, however, from time to time Rantisi again found himself “under house arrest.”
Against the backdrop of Sheikh Yassin’s physical weakness, Rantisi in 2001 became the de facto leader of Hamas, who coordinated the actions of militants and planned new terrorist attacks. Until his last days, he remained a public figure – he gave interviews with pleasure, and constantly talked about the need to continue the uncompromising struggle with Israel. In 2003, Rantisi refused to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority government.
After the Israeli Air Force killed Sheikh Yassin in March 2004, Rantisi’s security was tightened. However, he continued to receive journalists. Shortly before his death, in an interview with the Russian television company NTV, he said that he was ready to run for “president of Palestine.”
Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi was liquidated on April 17, 2004.