Who is Ziad al-Nakhalah, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad?

Behind what seems to be a calm personality and dressed in a classic suit, Ziad al-Nakhalah, Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in the Palestinian territories, hides a lot of who he is. 

According to various Palestinian sources, al-Nakhalah is a stubborn politician and a staunch supporter of armed resistance, refusing any relationships with the Israeli occupation. 

Al-Nakhalah heads the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which is close to Iran intellectually and politically. He is known to believe in ending the Israeli occupation and liberating the Palestinian territories without resorting to any political agreement with Israel.

Al-Nakhalah's name has often popped up during military conflicts between the armed Palestinian factions and Israel over the decades, and it is believed that he survived multiple assassination attempts by the Israeli Shin Bet. The latest attempt was in January 2024, Israel claimed that al-Nakhalah was killed in an Israeli raid on Damascus, but it later turned out that he was not present at the scene.

The PIJ is considered the second-largest Palestinian military force in Gaza, after Hamas, and no agreement can be reached with Israel without its approval.

Who is Ziad al-Nakhalah?

Ziad al-Nakhalah is a Palestinian politician who assumed the position of Secretary-General of the PIJ in 2018, after winning the first elections held within the PIJ after the death of its previous head, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah. 

Al-Nakhalah is considered one of the influential figures within the armed group and among political circles. 

He was born on 6 April 1953, in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip. His father, Rushdi al-Nakhalah, was killed in 1956 during the tripartite aggression against Egypt.

He received his primary education in Khan Younis, and from there he moved to the Orphanage Institute to complete his studies, and after that to the schools of Gaza, where he completed his preparatory and secondary education. He then joined the Teachers' Institute in Gaza and obtained a certificate of proficiency in education.

Furthermore, he is married and has two sons and four daughters.

In the 1980s, he founded the military wing of the PIJ, dubbing it  "Islamic Jihad Forces" which rebranded itself in 2000 during the second intifada as the "Al-Quds Brigades".

In 2014, the US State Department included his name on its "terrorism list" based on his support for movements and organisations hostile to Israel and his involvement in getting weapons into Gaza. The United States set a reward of US$5 million for anyone who could provide information about his whereabouts or help in his arrest.

Political pursuits

Ziad al-Nakhalah's political life is divided into two periods.

The first period began with his joining the Arab Liberation Forces led by Ziad al-Husseini (1943-1971) and ended with his arrest on 29 May 1971. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of throwing bombs at Israeli patrols.

In prison, al-Nakhalah had a new experience, as he devoted himself to reading Sayyid Qutb's books, including "In the Shade of the Qur'an", and interacted with various figures in Islamic movements inside the prisons. He spent 14 years in several Israeli prisons, before being released in a prisoner exchange deal in 1985 known as the Galilee Deal, and al-Nakhalah supervised the prisoner exchange process while in captivity.

The second period of his political career began the day after his release in 1985, as he was chosen as a member of the movement's first Shura Council, led at the time by the late Dr. Fathi Shaqaqi. 

He was then appointed as a member of the Supreme Council for the Leadership of the PIJ and was tasked with establishing the movement's first military wing between 1985 and 1986.

During the first intifada in the late 1980s, al-Nakhalah emerged as a leader and active member, representing the PIJ in the unified Palestinian national leadership that was formed at that time and composed of various political groups.

After the arrest of Shaqaqi, al-Nakhalah assumed responsibility for the movement committee in the Gaza Strip.

On 12 April 1988, Israeli forces arrested him on the grounds of fuelling the first intifada and participating in the establishment of the PIJ. He was sentenced to exile to southern Lebanon with dozens of activists and leaders from the PIJ and Hamas.

On 26 October 1995, the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) then assassinated Shaqaqi in Malta. Ramadan Shallah was chosen to head the movement, while al-Nakhalah was placed as his deputy and was again entrusted with arranging the affairs of the military wing of the movement.

By 2018, al-Nakhalah was named leader of the PIJ after Shallah suffered a long illness, and would pass away in Damascus in 2020. 

During the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in 2014, al-Nakhalah was a member of the factions and forces' negotiations that participated in shaping a ceasefire agreement. Nevertheless, Israeli warplanes targeted his family's home in the city, killing his brother's wife and son.

Good relations with all Palestinian factions

Al-Nakhalah, and his movement, is known to have good relationships with the rest of Palestinian factions, including Hamas. This is so because it is understood that neither he nor his movements were particularly interested in getting involved in governing Gaza. Al-Nakhalah and the PIJ have argued that Palestinians will not have their autonomous authority as long as they are under the Israeli occupation. 

Based on his relationships with Fatah and Hamas, al-Nakhalah headed the PIJ's delegation in the Palestinian reconciliation talks on several occasions. He was heavily involved in trying to bridge the gap between President Mahmoud Abbas and former Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal and overcome the division and schism among the Palestinian political arena.

On 24 December 2023, al-Nakhalah headed a PIJ delegation to Egypt to discuss Israel's latest war on Gaza Strip since October. 

Al-Nakhalah's uncompromising 'political vision'

Al-Nakhalah believes that PIJ has a clear vision on the issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that is separate from the rest of the resistance factions, articulated as: "the Zionist project is based on the complete elimination of the Palestinian people," and that the forces of revolution and resistance cannot comprise and must have the tools to confront it.

He also believes that the Palestinians have lost their aims vis-à-vis Israel, particularly in terms of resorting to initiatives for a solution that enables Zionism.

He is known to oppose dialogue between the Palestinian factions, considering the act a waste of time. Any form of reconciliation, he has reportedly articulated, between the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian factions will not happen without the Israel's approval, since it has absolute control of the geography, security, and economy of Palestine.