Said Seyam joined Hamas and became one of its top commanders.
14 Facts About Said Seyam
1.
2.
Said Seyam was the most senior Hamas member killed in the war, and the most senior Hamas figure killed by Israel since the death of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in April 2004.
3.
Said Seyam was born on 22 July 1959 in the Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City.
4.
Said Seyam held a job as a teacher at various United Nations-run schools until 2003.
5.
Said Seyam was arrested four times during the First Intifada from 1987 to 1991.
6.
In 1992, he was expelled from the Palestinian territories by Israel to southern Lebanon and upon his return in 1995, Said Seyam was arrested by the Preventive Security Service dominated by Fatah.
7.
Said Seyam was reported by Hamas as one of the pioneer of mortar and Qassam rocket attacks on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which caused them to be virtually besieged from 2001 to their evacuation by Israel in September 2005.
8.
Said Seyam was the second of Hamas' top five officials to be killed during Israel's offensive.
9.
Said Seyam had evaded at least one attempt by the IDF to kill him in late 2004.
10.
Said Seyam became one of the members of the Hamas "collective leadership" in Gaza after the 2004 killings of founders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.
11.
Said Seyam was close to Yassin and Hamas secretary-general Khaled Mashal, that latter whom he accompanied on a diplomatic visit to Moscow, Russia.
12.
Said Seyam represented the Gaza electoral district of the Palestinian Legislative Council as a Hamas member after being elected with the most votes for any single candidate.
13.
Said Seyam had six children: two boys and four girls.
14.
Said Seyam was killed on 15 January 2009 in an Israeli air raid on his brother's rented home in Jabalia.