Mahmoud al-Zahar is a co-founder of Hamas, and a member of Hamas' leadership in the Gaza Strip.

Pre-Hamas Life

Born to a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother in 1945, little is known about al-Zahar's early life.

At the age of 26, he graduated from the Cairo University Faculty of Medicine and five years later he got his Masters Degree in General Surgery from Ain Shams University , also in Cairo. He then became the advisor to the Palestinian Health Minister, and helped create the Palestinian Medical society and was one of the primary founders of the Islamic University in Gaza in 1978.

Family

al-Zahar has had four children with his wife Summaya, including their first son, Khaled born in 1974, and a daughter Rima born in 1983.

In Hamas

Instrumental to the creation of Hamas in 1987, al-Zahar remained a senior official and spokesperson for the group since then, and is rumoured to have succeeded to leadership of the group following Israel's assassination of Ahmed Yassin in 2004. Hamas has routinely denied this rumour, but refused to name who their new leader is, for fear of Israeli reprisals.

The most notable attempt on al-Zahar's life was on September 10th 2003, when Israeli F-16s dropped a large bomb over his house in Rimal that only managed to slightly wound him, while his son Khaled, and a personal bodyguard were killed, and 20 others wounded including his daughter Rima. His house was destroyed, and ten other houses nearby were damaged, as well as the nearby Al-Rahman mosque. The resulting funeral was attended by over two thousand mourners, who called on Hamas to avenge the deaths.

On January 17th 2003, Haaretz quoted al-Zahar as warning;

"If Iraq is attacked... all American targets will be open targets for every Muslim, Arab or Palestinian. Any attack against Iraq will be answered by resistance everywhere and American interests everywhere will be targeted. We say that all American targets will be open targets to every Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian."