Salama Hamad

Salama Hamad is a senior militant and leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas.

Born in 1972 in the Gaza Strip, Hamad joined the ranks of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the early 1990s. Living clandestinely and carrying out operations under the direction of Yahya Ayash and then Mohammed Deif and Adnan al-Ghoul, he became an important member in the organization.

During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Salama Hamad specialized in making bombs and was given the responsibility to improve the range and the efficiency of the Qassam rocket, together with Adnan al-Ghoul, Nidal Fat'hi Rabah Farahat and other militants.

On February 16, 2003, Hamad was working along with Farahat and other militants of the brigades on the construction of a drone that could attack Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip when one part of it, which was booby trapped, exploded. 6 militants died, including Farahat, but Hamad survived with serious injuries that put him in a hospital for months.

Recovering and joining once again the ranks of the Ezzedeen-al-qassam brigades in 2003, Salama Hamad continued to be in charge of the production of the Qassam rockets and was reportedly involved in the May 12, 2004 destruction of an armoured personnel carrier by a powerful explosive device that killed 6 Israeli soldiers during an operation by the Israeli Defense Forces in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City. At the beginning of 2005, Salama Hamad remains a fugitive actively wanted by Israel.