# Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi

Palestinian nationalism Factions and leaders :
Yassin + Haniyeh RantisiMashalSinwarDeifDeifMabhouhHabashAbbasHawatmehNakhalah :
Map: Birthplaces or family origins Details below: p. parents from, b. born in, d. death. :
Palestine Liberation Organization
Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas
Also: President of the PNA
PLO political factions
Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah)
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)
Palestinian People's Party (PPP)
Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF)
Arab Liberation Front (ALF)
Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA)
Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF)
Palestinian Arab Front (PAF)
As-Sa'iqa
Related groups
Palestinian National Initiative
Leader Mustafa Barghouti :
Fatah
Founders
Yasser Arafat
p. Gaza City b. Cairo d. 2004 in Paris
Khaled Yashruti
Salah Khalaf
Khalil al-Wazir
Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas
b. Safed
(President of the PA)
Secretary-General
Jibril Rajoub
Vice Chairman
Mahmoud Aloul :
Fatah splinter groups
Al-Mustaqbal (electoral list)
Marwan Barghouti
Prisoner of Israel
see also: Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis
Palestinian Mujahideen Movement
Militant wing Mujahideen Brigades
Former militant wings of Fatah
Raed Al Karmi
Founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
Naif Abu-Sharah
Local commander in Nablus
Fadi Kafisha
Former head of the Tanzim in Nablus
Sirhan Sirhan
Zakaria Zubeidi
Local commander in Jenin
see also Tali Fahima
Samih Madhoun
d. killed by EQB
Ibrahim al-Nabulsi
see also: Lions' Den :
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Secretary General
George Habash
b. Lydda
Abu Ali Mustafa
Birth name: "Mustafa Ali Zabri"
b. 1938 Arraba, Jenin Jenin
See also: 17 October 2001
Ahmad Sa'adat
Prisoners of Israel since 2006
see also: Israel–Hamas war hostage crisis
Deputy Secretary General
Jamil Mezher
Other key figures
Ghassan Kanafani
Schisms and splinter groups
PFLP-GC :
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Split from the PFLP in 1969.
Founder and current leader
Nayef Hawatmeh
b. 1938 As-Salt
Militant wing National Resistance Brigades
Spokesperson: Abu Khaled :
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Ziyad al-Nakhalah
b. Khan Yunis
Militant wing Saraya Al-Quds :
Hamas
List of leaders
Chairman of Hamas Shura Council (1987‑2004)
Ahmed Yassin
b. Al-Jura, d. 2004
Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi
b. Yibna, d. 2004
Chairman of Hamas Polit Bureau
Ismail Haniyeh
p. Al-Jura, b. Al-Shati, d. 2024
Khaled Mashal
b. Silwad
Leader in the Gaza Strip
Yahya Sinwar
p. Al‑Majal, b. Khan Yunis, d 2024
Head of International relations
Basem Naim
b. Beit Hanoun
Police and Disaster Management
Faiq Al-Mabhouh
p. Bayt Tima, d. 2024
Minister for Women's Affairs
Jamila al-Shanti
b. Jabalia, d. 2023, m. Widow of Rantisi
Militant wingEzzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades
Leader Mohammed Deif
Birth name: Mohammed Al-Masri
p. Kawkaba (near Kokhav Michael) and Al‑Qubayba, b. Khan Yunis
d. Failed attempt in 2014
d. Unconfirmed: 2024)
Related topics
Hamas government in the Gaza Strip
Hamas in Lebanon
All-Palestine Government in Gaza
Ashkelon incorporation into Israel :
Historical figures
Ezzedeen Al-Qassam
Namesake of the Qassam Brigades
Musa Alami
early Palestinian nationalist
b. 1897 in Jerusalem
Yaqub al-Ghusayn
b. 1899 in Ramla
George Antonius
b. 1891 Deir al-Qamar
al-Husayni family
Jamal al-Husayni
Musa al-Husayni :
Related topics
Ideologies
Palestinian nationalism
Islamism in the Gaza Strip
Islamic nationalism § Hamas
Present day
Palestinian political parties
Elections in Palestine
Palestinian political violence
Hamas government in the Gaza Strip
Palestinian Legislative Council
State of Palestine
Occupied Palestinian Territories
List of Palestinians
1967 to 1995
Palestinian fedayeen
History of Hamas
1948 to 1967
All-Palestine Government
Gaza Protectorate
Jordanian annexation of the West Bank
Palestinian National Council
1918 to 1948
Mandatory Palestine
Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine
Army of the Holy War
Society for the Defense of Palestine
Before 1918
Origin of the Palestinians :
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2024) :
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Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi (Arabic: عبد العزيز الرنتيسي‎; 23 October 1947 – 17 April 2004) was a Palestinian political leader and co-founder of Hamas, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1987. He also served as the chairman of the Hamas Shura Council from March 2004 until his assassination in April 2004 and the first deputy chairman of the Hamas Shura Council from December 1987 until March 2004.
Rantisi was born in Yibna, Mandatory Palestine in 1947. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, his family fled or were expelled by Zionist militias to the Gaza Strip. In 1956, when he was nine, Israeli soldiers killed his uncle in front of him in Khan Younis, which he stated had a lifelong impact on him. He studied pediatric medicine and genetics at Alexandria University in Egypt, graduating first in his class; during that time he became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1976, he returned to Gaza to teach parasitology and genetics at the Islamic University of Gaza.
During the First Intifada against the Israeli occupation in 1988, he became a popular organizer and a leader whose efforts helped the formation of Hamas. Rantisi became Hamas's political leader and spokesman in the Gaza Strip following the Israeli killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March 2004. Rantisi opposed compromise with Israel and called for the creation of a Palestinian state (including the whole of the State of Israel) through military action against Israel.
On 17 April 2004, the Israeli Air Force assassinated al-Rantisi by firing Hellfire missiles from an AH-64 Apache helicopter at his car.

## Early life and education

Rantisi was born in Yibna, near Ramle in Mandatory Palestine on 23 October 1947. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, his family fled or were expelled by Zionist militias to the Gaza Strip. In 1956, when he was eight or nine, he witnessed the Khan Yunis massacre, in which Israeli soldiers killed hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. During the massacre, al-Rantisi recalled that Israeli soldiers killed his uncle in front of him — as he explained to Joe Sacco, this fact was very important for his future life. He studied pediatric medicine and genetics at Egypt's, Alexandria University, graduating first in his class. He was a certified physician. During his time in Egypt, he became a deeply convicted member of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1976, Rantisi returned to Gaza to teach parasitology and genetics at the Islamic University.

## History with Hamas

In 1987, four Palestinian civilians of the Jabalya refugee camp were killed in a traffic accident that involved Israeli settlers and soldiers. Rantisi joined Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Salah Shehadeh, among others, encouraging people to protest the occupation, after mosque services. This was the start of the First Intifada, which lasted five years. Rantisi became a popular organizer and leader whose efforts helped the formation of Hamas.
In December 1992, Rantissi was deported to southern Lebanon, as part of the expulsion of 416 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and emerged as the general spokesman of the expellees.
On 8 June 2003, he directed a Hamas-led attack in which four Israeli soldiers were killed at the Erez Crossing in the Gaza Strip. On 10 June 2003, Rantisi survived an Israeli helicopter attack on a car in which he was traveling. He was lightly wounded in the attack, which killed one of his bodyguards, a civilian, and wounded at least 25 others. Rantisi also reportedly threatened, while in his bed in Al-Shifa Hospital, "not a single Jew in Palestine is safe" and "kill Israeli political leaders, because all of them are killers".
On 23 March 2004, Rantisi was named leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following the killing of Ahmed Yassin by Israeli forces. On 27 March 2004, Rantisi addressed 5,000 supporters in Gaza. He declared the then-US President George W. Bush to be an "enemy of Muslims" and asserted that "America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon. The war of God continues against them and I can see the victory coming up from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas."

## Assassination

On 17 April 2004, Rantisi was assassinated by the Israeli Air Force, when they fired Hellfire missiles from an AH-64 Apache helicopter at his car. Two others, a bodyguard (named Akram Nassar), and Rantisi's 27-year-old son Mohammed, were also killed in the attack, and four bystanders wounded. Israeli army radio stated that this was the first opportunity to target Rantisi, without significant collateral damage, since he took the leadership of Hamas, alleging that he had surrounded himself with human shields since the killing of Yassin.

### Reactions

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled stated:
    "Israel...today struck a mastermind of terrorism, with blood on his hands. As long as the Palestinian Authority does not lift a finger and fight terrorism, Israel will continue to have to do so itself."
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw condemned the action:
    "The British government has made it repeatedly clear that so-called 'targeted assassinations' of this kind are unlawful, unjustified and counter-productive."

## Personal life

Rantisi was married to Jamila Abdallah Taha al-Shanti, who was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006, and who was herself assassinated in 2023; they had six children.

## Legacy

The Al-Rantisi Pediatric Hospital, in Gaza City, is named after him. It provided treatment for cancer and kidney failure.