Chalid Maschal

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Chalid Maschal (2009)

Chalid Maschal (* May 1956 in Silwad near Ramallah ; Arabic خالد مشعل Chālid Maschʿal , DMG Ḫālid Mašʿal ) is a political leader of the terrorist Palestinian Hamas .

Life

Maschal was born in 1956 in Silwad, then Jordan, north of Ramallah ( West Bank ). His family later moved to Kuwait . He married in 1981 and has seven children. Maschal holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Kuwait University . Maschal was involved at his university as the founder and leader of the Haqq block, an Islamist Palestinian group that fought against the dominance of Yasser Arafat's PLO on campus. After Saddam Hussein's troops entered Kuwait, which was welcomed by the Palestinians , Maschal moved to Jordan. He has been a member of the Hamas Political Bureau since its inception, and in 1996 became the chairman and thus the political spokesman for Hamas.

Maschal lived in Damascus in the meantime and was involved in the negotiations for the liberation of the kidnapped Gilad Shalit . At the beginning of 2012 he left his exile in Damascus during the course of the Syrian civil war in which Hamas opposed President Bashar al-Assad and moved to Qatar .

After several rockets hit the small Israeli town of Sderot in May 2007 , several Israeli ministers across the Hamas leadership threatened targeted killings. The minister for internal security, Avi Dichter , threatened by name to kill the political head of Hamas, Khalid Maschal, who is living in exile in Syria , at the "first opportunity" because he was "a more than legitimate target".

On December 7, 2012, Maschal traveled to the Gaza Strip via Egypt to attend the celebrations for Hamas' 25th anniversary. It was the first time in 45 years that he entered the Palestinian territories.

In May 2017, the Hamas shura elected Ismail Haniyya , previously Maschal's deputy, as the new chairman of its political office.

Assassination attempt

On September 25, 1997, Maschal was the target of an attack by the Israeli secret service Mossad . At the request of the then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , several agents went to Jordan with the help of Canadian passports, where Maschal was staying. The attack itself was carried out in front of Maschal's office at around 10 a.m. One agent was supposed to distract Maschal, another unobtrusively sprayed a deadly and deadly poison in his ear. It was a derivative of fentanyl , which was much stronger than the commercially available anesthetic, penetrated easily through the skin and killed within a few days without being detectable. The assassins succeeded in spraying the poison on, but after a short escape they were caught by Maschal's companions and handed over to the Jordanian security forces.

Jordan's King Hussein then asked Netanyahu to hand over the antidote. Netanyahu initially refused and the antidote was only handed over through the intervention of US President Bill Clinton . The Jordanian doctors had already received information from the agents and also injections of the antidote found on the agents. However, they were conservative because they distrusted the Israelis. Maschal, whose breathing was paralyzed, was placed in an artificial coma and treated with naloxone , an antagonist for opioids that ultimately turned out to be the antidote sought, and flumazenil , an antidote for benzodiazepines , which worked, even if the effects were successful lasted only minutes so it had to be given constantly. Maschal survived thanks to his good physical condition.

The Mossad agents were then exchanged for Hamas leader Ahmad Yasin , who was in prison in Israel.

Web links

Commons : Khaled Mashal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ a b Knaul, Susanne: Hamas boss Maschaal in the Gaza Strip: Appear like a winner. taz.de, December 7, 2012, accessed December 8, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Cf. Clemens Verenkotte : " Rocket fire in the Gaza border area: Israel threatens Hamas with tougher action (tagesschau.de archive)", Tagesschau , May 20, 2007.
  3. ↑ Paul McGeough, Kill Khalid, Allen and Unwin 2009, p. 2. McGeough speaks of levofentanyl, sometimes also of lofentanil .
  4. ↑ Le Monde diplomatique , German edition September 2009, p. 12.
  5. ↑ " Netanyahu in spotlight as assassination plot unravels ( Memento of March 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )", CNN World News , October 5, 1997.
  6. ^ McGeough, Kill Khalid, p. 158
personal data
SURNAME Maschal, Chalid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES خالد مشعل (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION political leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement
DATE OF BIRTH May 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Silwad near Ramallah