Khalil Al-Wazir

Khalil Al-Wazir

Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir (Arabic: خليل إبراهيم الوزير‎, also known by his teknonym Abu Jihad  أبو جهاد – father of struggle; October 10, 1935 – April 16, 1988) was a Palestinian leader and founder of the secular nationalist party Fatah. As a top aide of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman, Yasser Arafat, al-Wazir had considerable influence in Fatah's military activities, eventually becoming the commander of Fatah's armed wing al-Assifa. The majority of the Palestinians viewed him as a martyr who died resisting the Israeli occupation or at least sympathized with his cause, while most Israelis considered him to be a high-profile terrorist for planning the killings of Israelis.

Al-Wazir became a refugee when his family was expelled from Ramla during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and began leading a minor fedayeen force in the Gaza Strip. In the early 1960s, he established connections for Fatah with Communist regimes and prominent third-world leaders. He opened Fatah's first bureau in Algeria. He played an important role in the 1970–71 Black September clashes in Jordan, by supplying surrounded Palestinian fighters with weapons and aid. Following the PLO's defeat by the Jordanian Army, al-Wazir joined the PLO in Lebanon.

Prior to and during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, al-Wazir planned numerous attacks inside Israel against both civilian and military targets. He prepared Beirut's defense against incoming Israeli forces. Nonetheless, Israel prevailed and he was exiled from Lebanon with the rest of the Fatah leadership. Al-Wazir settled in Amman for a two-year period and was then exiled to Tunis in 1986. From his base there, he started to organize youth committees in the Palestinian territories; these eventually became the backbone of the Palestinian forces in the First Intifada. However, he did not live to command the uprising: on April 16, 1988, he was assassinated at his home in Tunis, by Israeli commandos.