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Martyr Said Siyam in Lines...

Martyr Said Siyam in Lines...
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Source: Al-Manar TV, 16-01-2009

Said Siyam is the most senior leader of the Hamas resistance movement to have been martyred since the beginning of the "Israeli" offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Siyam, his son, brother Iyad and his brother's family, had died when an "Israeli" missile struck his brother's home in Gaza City on 15 January.

The "Israeli" military say he was killed in a joint operation carried out by the "Israeli" Southern Command and the Shin Bet internal security agency.
The 52-year-old was interior minister in the Hamas government and oversaw thousands of members of the Executive Force, a paramilitary organization. He has six children- two boys and four girls.

He is also said to have been one of three members of the "collective leadership" of Hamas in Gaza since 2004, which was formed after Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantissi were killed by "Israel".

Siyam was born in the Shati refugee camp near Gaza City in 1959 after his parents fled their home in the village of al-Jura, near Asqalan-now known as the "Israeli" settlement of Ashkelon-during the 1948 Arab-"Israeli" war.

After completing his secondary education in Gaza City, Siyam gained a diploma in sciences and maths, followed by a bachelor's degree in Islamic education from the Al-Quds Open University.
He then became a teacher at local UN-run schools, a profession in which he remained until 2003.

It is not known when Siyam joined Hamas, which was formed by Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood leaders following the outbreak of the first mass uprising - or Intifada - against the "Israeli" occupation in 1987.
However, Palestinian reports say he was arrested at least four times by "Israel" between 1989 and 1992 for participating in Hamas activities.

And later in 1992, "Israel" deported him along with senior Hamas leaders Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, Mahmoud Zahhar and Ismail Haniya, and more than 400 other officials, to South Lebanon.
Siyam was again detained for a few months in 1995, not long after his return to Gaza, however this time by the Palestinian Authority, which was dominated by Hamas' main rival, Fatah.

In subsequent years, Siyam rose through Hamas' ranks, preaching at a local mosque, and reportedly becoming close to the movement's spiritual leader, Sheikh Yassin, who was released from an "Israeli" prison in 1997, and its exiled political leader, Khaled Meshaal.
 
After ending his teaching career in 2003, he became a member of the movement's Political Bureau and head of its foreign affairs department, leading negotiations with Egyptian and Iranian officials, with whom he enjoyed warm relations.
In March 2004, Sheikh Yassin and his successor, Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, were assassinated within days of each other. Wary of further attacks, Hamas kept the appointment of Rantissi's successor secret.

But Palestinian sources said Siyam had been appointed to the movement's "collective leadership" with Mahmoud Zahhar and Ismail Hanieh.
Two years later, he won election to the Palestinian Legislative Council, collecting the most votes for any single candidate.

Hamas won a total of 76 seats out of 132 in the parliamentary poll, challenging Fatah's long-held dominance, and was asked to form a new government.
Siyam was appointed interior minister, a post which put him in control of three of the Palestinian Authority's five security services.

Analysts say Siyam's death, though a blow to its security apparatus, is unlikely to end the resistance movement's defiance in the face of the "Israeli" aggression.
"Some of our leaders will fall, some of our people will fall, but the flag of resistance won't fall," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said after Siyam's martyrdom.

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