Son of ex-senior Hamas commander dies in Gaza car crash
Malik Jabari, 20, was fighter in terror group’s elite unit; father was assassinated by Israel in 2012
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The son of a senior Hamas commander assassinated by Israel in 2012 was killed in a car crash Wednesday in the Gaza Strip.
Malik Jabari, son of Hamas armed wing leader Ahmed Jabari, died aged 20 in a collision in the neighborhood of Shejaiya, according to Palestinian sources. He was 20.
Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said on Twitter that Malik Jabari was an operative in the group’s elite unit.
In November 2012, the Israeli Air Force launched a series of airstrikes in Gaza City, killing Ahmed Jabari, and another son, Mohammed al-Homs.
وفـاة الشاب مالك الجعبري 20 عاماً، نجل الشهيد القائد أحمد الجعبري بحادث سير بحي الشجاعية شرق غزة . pic.twitter.com/oirUcJfVsC
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) December 23, 2015
Witnesses said Jabari, the acting head of the al-Qassam Brigades at the time, was traveling in a vehicle in Gaza City when the car was blown up. Crowds of people and security personnel rushed to the scene of the strike, trying to put out the fire that had engulfed the car and left it a charred shell.
Jabari was credited with being one of the leaders of Hamas’s violent putsch to take control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, and masterminded the professionalization of the organization’s military.
Israel attempted to kill Jabari in an airstrike in 2004, but ended up killing his eldest son, his brother and several cousins instead.
Jabari has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list and was notorious in Israel, which blamed him for a string of attacks, including the terror infiltration which saw the capture of soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006.
Despite being a stickler for personal security, Jabari personally escorted Shalit in the 2011 handover to Egyptian authorities, who then released him to Israel. Video footage from the handoff showed the Hamas leader standing behind Shalit.
The Times of Israel Community.