Hamas revealed information about two operatives killed in Operation Guardian of the Walls, both senior figures in its military-terrorist wing UAV project.

Overview

• Led by Hamas, the Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip marked the anniversary of Operation Guardian of the Walls. For the occasion, on June 11, 2022, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military-terrorist wing, issued a 28-minute video entitled “‘[One] soul in two bodies.” It dealt with two Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades operatives, Hazem Misbah Ibrahim al-Khatib and Zafer Mazen Zafer al-Shawa, who were senior operatives in Hamas’ UAV-production unit and were killed in an IDF airstrike on May 12, 2021, the second day of Operation Guardian of the Walls (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website).

• The attack was called by the IDF “The city of Goliath,” and during it the IDF struck the openings of an underground bunker constructed near civilian buildings in Gaza City. The bunker had an extensive tunnel system and was used as a hiding place by senior Hamas operatives who dealt with weapons research, development and production. In IDF assessment the attack destroyed about half of Hamas’ rocket production capabilities, as well as other assets which made it difficult for Hamas to later rebuild its military strength (Walla!, May 7, 2022).
• According to an ITIC bulletin,^[1] on the morning of May 12, 2021, the IDF attacked western Gaza City where senior Hamas military operatives were located, among them Bassem Issa, who commanded Hamas’ Gaza City Brigade. The attack killed 14 Hamas terrorist operatives. The same day Hamas issued a notice confirming the death of Bassem Issa and “a group of brother commanders and jihad fighters,” without noting their names (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, May 12, 2021). A video was later issued of their funeral, during which their names of all 14 were read, Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa among them, all of them Hamas terrorist operatives. Their bodies were wrapped for burial in Hamas flags (al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, May 14, 2021).
• The recent video dealt specifically with Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa. At the time, the Palestinian media reported Hazem Qassem was an operative in the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades rocket launching unit (Sama, May 13, 2021). Israeli sources reported he was head of the engineering department of Hamas’ arms production unit and deputy head of the entire unit (Israel HaYom, May 12, 2021). Zafer al-Shawa was reported as a Hamas operative, with no role noted (Paldf, May 13, 2022).
• The new video revealed additional information about them, especially their activities within Hamas’ military-terrorist wing. They were both communications engineers and involved in the wing’s activities for two decades, and had significant roles in developing Hamas’ military-terrorist capabilities. They set up the first operations room to monitor the frequencies used by Israel aircraft to be able to alert senior Hamas figures of Israel’s intention to attack them. They also played important roles in the project to develop UAVs (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, June 11, 2022).
• During and after Operation Guardian of the Walls Hamas and its affiliated media outlets tried to play down the IDF’s successes, focusing on the barrages of rockets fired at Israel, alleging they caused casualties and disrupted daily life in Israel. They also claimed, falsely, that most of the Gazans killed by the Israeli Air Force’s attacks were civilians, and only a few were military operatives.^[2] In some instances, when senior military operatives were killed, a great deal of information about their rank and activities was hidden.
• Now, a year after the operation, contrary to its usual policy, Hamas released information about the two operatives, who had key roles in developing weapons for the organization. Furthermore, to emphasize their importance, family members who were interviewed for the video said the roles the two played were so critical, they were surprised they had not been killed before Operation Guardian of the Walls (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, June 11, 2022).

Information Revealed by the Video

• According to video, Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa were good friends, and were described as “one soul in two bodies.” They went everywhere together and were killed in the same IDF attack. They were communications engineers who joined the ranks of Hamas’ military-terrorist wing two decades previously. Because of their impressive accomplishments they had close relations with senior operatives, including Muhammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’ military-terrorist wing, Jamal al-Zebda (see Appendix), Bassem Issa, who commanded the Gaza City Brigade, Ahmed al-Jaabari and Muhammad al-Zouari, the central developer of UAVs for Hamas, who was killed in Tunisia. The following information was revealed by the video (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, June 11, 2022):

Membership in the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades and early activity

• Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa met at the neighborhood mosque in the al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. They were childhood friends and lived near one another. The death of Yahya Ayash, “the engineer,” in a targeted killing on January 5, 1996, deeply shocked both of them, and Zafer al-Shawa collapsed, sobbing, on his grave. The suicide bombing attack carried out by Isma’il al-Ma’suwabi in the Gaza Strip on June 22, 2001, was a turning point in Hazem al-Khatib life,^[3] and he and his good friend Zafer al-Shawa decided they would also be suicide bombers.
• Abu al-Abd Siam, commander of the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades’ production department, said that during the intifada [apparently the second intifada, which began at the end of September 2000], preparations were made three times to sent Zafer al-Shawa on a suicide bombing mission, and three times he was on his way to attack but returned, and the attacks were never carried out.

   
Right: Hazem al-Khatib (right) and Zafer al-Shawa in their youth. Left: Hazem al-Khatib during Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades military training (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, June 11, 2022).

Activity in the arms production department

• “Abu Ibrahim,” commander in the arms production department, whose face was masked for the video, said Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa worked to develop “quality” weapons which would give them strategic superiority over “the enemy” [Israel], such as UAVs, naval capabilities and command and control systems.
• Abu al-Abd Siam, commander of the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades’ production department, said Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa’s first missions were to establish a secure land-line network for the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades operatives for command and control during both fighting and lulls, and for operating various types of weapons. In addition, he said, the two played key roles in establishing an operations room for monitoring the frequencies used by Israeli Air Force’s UAVs. In that they were directed by Abu Ahmed al-Jaabari, who gave them material support to carry out their roles.
• Al-Khatib and al-Shawa participated in the terrorist attack at the Karni Crossing on December 7, 2004.^[4] According to the narrator, soldiers were tricked into entering the Gaza Strip. During the event Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa monitored their progress and reported to those who carried out the attack.

Working with Muhammad al-Zouari to develop UAVs

• According to Abu Ibrahim, Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa had a special connection with Muhammad al-Zouari, the Tunisian aviation engineer who developed UAVs for Hamas and Hezbollah and was killed in Tunisia on December 15, 2016 (see the Appendix). He was a mechanical engineer and the two were communications engineers, so they complemented one another in developing various types of UAVs. Al-Zouari was even hosted at their homes when he came to the Gaza Strip as part of his activities.

  
Right: Muhammad al-Zouari. Left: Hazem al-Khatib (right) with Muhammad al-Zouari, who developed UAVs for Hamas and Hezbollah (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website).

•   The video also displayed aircraft used by Hamas military-terrorist wing, among them the Shehab, a “suicide” UAV that carries a load of explosives and was used for the first time during Operation Guardian of the Walls; the al-Zouari, which both blows up and collects intelligence information, and was also used for the first time during Operation Guardian of the Walls; and the Ababil, an attack UAV that also collects intelligence information, used for the first time during Operation Protective Edge, 2014.

   
Right: The UAVs from left to right, al-Zouari, Ababil and Shehab. Left: Operatives in the arms department at a display of UAVs. The pictures on the wall are of shaheeds, including Tunisian aviation engineer Muhammad al-Zouari (extreme right), Hazem al-Khatib (third from the right) and Zafer al-Shawa (third from the left) (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, June 11, 2022).

    
Right: Ababil, used by the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades. Left: Launching UAVs (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, June 11, 2022).

Appendix

Other Hamas terrorist operatives mentioned in the video

• Muhammad al-Zouari was very friendly with Hazem al-Khatib and Zafer al-Shawa according to the video, and was in constant contact with them regarding the development of aircraft capabilities in the Gaza Strip. When he came to the Gaza Strip on business he always visited them. He was 49 at the time of his death, an engineer who came from Sfax in eastern Tunisia. He came from a religious family, and when he finished his studies and military service he took a civilian pilot’s training course and went to work for Tunisair. Following his activity in the Islamist al-Nahda party he was fired and fled to Sudan. In 1991 he moved to Syria and joined Hamas’ military-terrorist wing, for which he developed UAVs and drones. On December 15, 2016, he was shot to death in his car. Hamas’ military-terrorist wing issued a mourning notice for him in which he was called a senior Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades operator, and accused Israel of killing him. According to Hamas he joined its ranks a decade before his death and was “one of the commanders who supervised the UAV department…” (Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades website, December 18, 2016). Several years later the Hamas-affiliated IED and incendiary balloon-launching units in the Gaza Strip called themselves “the sons of al-Zouari.”
• Jamal Muhammad Sayid Abd al-Rahman al-Zebda^[5] had a PhD in mechanical engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He had American citizenship, and his research into delta-wing technology was used to manufacture various warplanes, including the F-35, and was published in scientific journals and books, and was used in developing plane engines. In 1994 he returned to the Gaza Strip and lectured in the engineering department of the Islamic University in Gaza City. In 2006 he joined a covert engineering team working for Hamas which developed military equipment, including rockets. He worked closely with Muhammad Deif, who headed the team. He raised an entire generation of engineers at the Islamic University, and recruited many of them to Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades’ weapons development program, focusing on rockets and UAVs. In 2012 he was saved at the last minute from a targeted killing during Operation Pillar of Defense (al-Akhbar, May 22, 2021). His son Usama al-Zebda, also an engineer and also an American citizen, joined Hamas. Both were killed in an IDF attack on May 12, 2021. Al-Jazeera broadcast a program for the first anniversary of Operation Guardian of the Walls which dealt with Hamas’ side, and according to the program, Jamal al-Zebda developed the rockets fired at Tel Aviv (al-Jazeera, May 28, 2022).
• Muhammad Jamil Fares was 37 at the time of his death. He studied mechanical engineering in Syria at Latakia University, where he was a student activist. In 2005 he founded Hamas’ military activity department abroad, launched a project for producing UAVs and began raising funds and recruiting engineers. The unit was headed by Muhammad al-Zouari. When Fares finished his studies in 2007 he was invited to join the unit headed by Muhammad al-Zouari working on projects manufacturing weapons. He accepted the invitation and was al-Zouari’s right-hand man in developing many models. In 2011 he returned to the Gaza Strip with his wife, who was a doctor and the daughter of a high-ranking Hamas operative abroad, whom he met in Syria, and with their son. In the Gaza Strip he worked on manufacturing aircraft and developing new models, and was responsible for training engineers. He became prominent after Operation Pillar of Defense and the attack on the facility for the manufacture of aircraft where he worked. During Operation Protective Edge his house and the house of his family in Khan Yunis were attacked (Palinfo, May 19, 2021; al-Jazeera Mubasher, May 12, 2021). He was also killed in the IDF attack on May 12, 2021.

^[1] For further information, see the May 20, 2021 bulletin, "An examination of the names of the fatalities in the IDF airstrikes during the first two days of Operation Guardian of the Walls reveals that most of them were terrorist operatives." ↑

^[2] According to the examination carried out by the ITIC, more than 48% of those killed were operatives in the military-terrorist wings in the Gaza Strip. For further information, see the May 20, 2021 bulletin, "An examination of the names of the fatalities in the IDF airstrikes during the first two days of Operation Guardian of the Walls reveals that most of them were terrorist operatives." ↑

^[3] On June 22, 2001, terrorist operatives parked a jeep in the northern Gaza Strip and pretended they needed help. When IDF soldiers went to help them, a suicide bomber inside the jeep blew himself up, killing two soldiers and wounding one. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack (Israeli media, June 23, 2001). ↑

^[4] On December 7, 2004, an IED exploded near an IDF force conducting a search near the Karni Crossing, and terrorists shot at them at the same time. One soldier was killed and four [5] For further information, see the July 6, 2021 bulletin, "The attack on a senior lecturer of the Islamic University of Gaza during Operation Guardian of the Walls emphasized once again the connection between the university, which enjoys EU funding, and Hamas." ↑

[5] For further information, see the July 6, 2021 bulletin, "The attack on a senior lecturer of the Islamic University of Gaza during Operation Guardian of the Walls emphasized once again the connection between the university, which enjoys EU funding, and Hamas."

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