# Abu Ali Mustafa

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) :
vte :
Mustafa Ali Zabri (Arabic: مصطفى علي الزبري; 1938 – 27 August 2001), better known by his kunya Abu Ali Mustafa (/ˈɑːbuː ˈɑːli ˈmuːstəfə/ ; Arabic: أبو علي مصطفى) and also known as Mustafa Alhaj, was a Palestinian militant who served as the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from July 2000 until he was assassinated by Israeli forces in a targeted killing on 27 August 2001. Mustafa was succeeded as Secretary General by Ahmad Saadat, and the PFLP subsequently renamed their armed wing in the Palestinian territories the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades.

## Biography

Mustafa Zabri was born in 1938, in the northern West Bank town of Arrabah, the son of a farmer. In 1955 he joined the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), and two years later was arrested by the Jordanian authorities for his political activities. On his release in 1961, he took charge of the ANM's military operations in the northern West Bank. Following the Israel Defense Forces' capture of the West Bank in the Six-Day War, he left the West Bank and spent 32 years mainly in Damascus and Jordan.
Mustafa joined George Habash and other left-wing members of the ANM in establishing the Marxist–Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1967, and became a leading member of the new organization. He was also a prominent member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, rising to become a member of its ruling Executive Committee. He was for a long time deputy to Habash's leadership of the PFLP.
In September 1999 he returned to the West Bank under a deal struck between Yasser Arafat and Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Barak. In July 2000 he was elected as the new general secretary of the PFLP after Habash retired. The PFLP is designated a terrorist organization by Israel and many western states. Israel held Mustafa personally responsible for 10 different car-bomb attacks undertaken by the PFLP during his time as general secretary (in Jerusalem, Or Yehuda, Yehud, and Haifa) and other shootings.

## Assassination

Mustafa was killed by two rockets fired from two Israeli Apache helicopters through his two office windows, as he sat at his desk in his office in Al-Bireh city, in a targeted killing on 27 August 2001.
Thousands of mourners attended his funeral. Associated Press said, "Marching in the Ramallah funeral procession were the leaders of Palestinian factions that have been riven by rivalries in the past". The mourners included ministers from Yasser Arafat's Cabinet, other members of the Palestinian legislature, and high-ranking representatives of radical groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
In an interview with Al Jazeera shortly before his death, Mustafa repeated his belief that the Palestinian people have the right to struggle using all means, including the armed struggle. Asked about the risk of targeted killing at Israeli hands he said: "We all are targeted as soon as we begin to be mobilised. We do our best to avoid their guns, but we are living under the brutal Zionist occupation of our lands, and its army is only a few metres away from us. Of course we must be cautious, but we have work to do, and nothing will stop us." He also rejected anything less than Israel's "destruction", saying "we do not make deals or truces with Israel."
Israeli tourist minister Rehavam Ze'evi, leader of the far-right nationalist Moledet party, was subsequently assassinated on 17 October 2001 by PFLP member Hamdi Quran in revenge for Israel's killing of Mustafa's. Ze'evi had been a strong supporter of Israel carrying out targeted killing of Palestinian militants. He and his party also supported the ethnic cleansing of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, by under the euphemism "population transfer".