Hamas leader Emad al-Alami passed away on Tuesday morning after he succumbed to wounds sustained three weeks ago.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said al-Alami was hit in the head while inspecting his personal weapon at his home on January 9.
Al-Alami was evacuated to al-Shifaa Hospital in Gaza where he was pronounced dead this morning.
Born in Gaza city on February 16 1956 al-Alami pursued his education at Gaza’s schools and had much of his intellect shaped by the doctrines of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin who advised him to study civil engineering at Alexandria University in Egypt.
Following Ahmed Yassin’s recommendations al-Alami pursued his higher education in Alexandria. He went back to his mother country following 1967 six-day war.
Since Hamas inception al-Alami stood as an icon of anti-occupation activism.
He was kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces six months after Hamas’s inception and sentenced to two years on charges of incitement.
In 1990 he was released from Israeli jails and resumed his anti-occupation activities with Hamas. He was re-arrested in 1991 and deported along with a number of Hamas leaders.
Al-Alami had been a prominent advocate of the Palestinian cause overseas. He was assigned as Hamas representative in Tehran before he moved to Syria and finally to Gaza in 2012 ending 20 years of forced deportation.
He was elected as the deputy of Hamas chief in Gaza Ismail Haneyya in 2013 before he was shot and injured in an Israeli raid during the 2014 offensive on the besieged enclave.
Al-Alami breathed his last on Tuesday morning at the age of 62 sparking widespread sorrow across the occupied Palestinian territories and the world.
