25 Facts About Fathi Shaqaqi

Fathi Ibrahim Abdulaziz Shaqaqi was a Palestinian physician, leader and the founder and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization.

Fathi Shaqaqi studied physics and mathematics at Bir Zeit University and later medicine at Mansoura University in Egypt.

Fathi Shaqaqi became a follower of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Sayyid Qutb.

In 1981, Fathi Shaqaqi co-founded Islamic Jihad with the goal of establishing a sovereign Islamic state across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Fathi Shaqaqi was assassinated by Mossad agents in Malta in 1995, leading to a weakening of the PIJ until its resurgence after the Arab Spring.

Fathi Shaqaqi was born to a refugee family of eight children in the slums of a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Fathi Shaqaqi's family was originally from Zarnuqa near Ramlah, where they had lived for nearly five generations and his grandfather had served as the imam of the local mosque.

Fathi Shaqaqi attended Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, where he studied physics and mathematics.

Fathi Shaqaqi became a follower of the ideas of Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna.

Fathi Shaqaqi read Marxist literature, including allegedly the entire works of Karl Marx, but kept untouched by socialism.

Fathi Shaqaqi came to believe that the PLO opposition to Israeli occupation was worthless and that only an Islamist organisations could achieve any political and military successes against Israel.

Fathi Shaqaqi wrote a short book praising Khomeini's approach to Islamic governance titled Khomeini, The Islamic Solution and the Alternative, published in Cairo four days after the victory of the revolution.

Fathi Shaqaqi prohibited targeting innocent civilians, which however did not include Israeli settlers.

Fathi Shaqaqi was arrested in Gaza by Israel in 1983 for publishing the magazine "Islamic Vanguard", but released the following year.

Fathi Shaqaqi was rearrested in 1986 and sentenced to four years in prison at Ashkelon and Nafah in the Negev desert.

Shortly after his expulsion to Lebanon in 1988, Fathi Shaqaqi met Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, who pledged financial and military support for his organization.

Fathi Shaqaqi was a key player in setting up the National Alliance in January 1994, a coalition of eight PLO groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas rejecting the Oslo process.

Fathi Shaqaqi was shot five times on 26 October 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta by a hit team said to be composed of two Mossad agents.

The assassination happened a few days after Fathi Shaqaqi conducted an interview with journalist Ibrahim Hamidi of Al-Hayat Newspaper.

Fathi Shaqaqi had been travelling under the false name Dr Ibrahim Ali Shawesh.

Fathi Shaqaqi's assassination produced disarray in Islamic Jihad since no competent successor could replace Shaqaqi.

Ronen Bergman writes that Fathi Shaqaqi was out shopping, and was shot twice in the forehead and twice in the back of the head, with a semi-automatic pistol fitted with a silencer and a device to catch the spent cartridges, and that the motorbike had been stolen the day before.

Fathi Shaqaqi left behind a wife and three children, two boys and a girl.

Fathi Shaqaqi was succeeded as Secretary-General of the PIJ by fellow co-founder Ramadan Shallah.

The assassination of Fathi Shaqaqi, who was regarded as a highly charismatic and capable leader, and the subsequent crackdown on the PIJ by Israel and the Palestinian National Authority led to a significant weakening of the organization.