Zaher Jabarin

Zaher Jabarin (Arabic: زاهر جبارين - Hebrew: זאהר ג'בארין - born 18 September 1968) is a Palestinian leader in exile, prisoner advocate, and financial administrator in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Jabarin has led the Hamas Financial Bureau since the mid-2010s, managing the group's investment portfolio estimated at over $500 million. The financial network Jabarin oversees raises, invests, and launders money destined for Hamas militant activities in the West Bank and Gaza via networks in Turkey, Lebanon, and the Arabian Gulf.

With Saleh al-Arouri, Jabarin was one of the co-founders of Hamas' military wing in the West Bank in the late 1980s. In 1993, Jabarin was arrested and an Israeli court sentenced him to life imprisonment plus 35 years for killing Israelis during the First Intifada. He was responsible for attacks that killed Israeli soldiers and police.

Jabarin was released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011, after which he assumed leadership of the Hamas Financial Bureau from his base in Istanbul, Turkey.

During the Israel-Hamas war, after al-Arouri was killed in Dahieh on 2 January 2024, Jabarin succeeded him a Hamas' leader in the West Bank. Jabarin was allegedly responsible for the resumption of Hamas' planning and incitement of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, including the Lehi Street bombing in Tel Aviv on 18 August 2024, as the group's capabilities in Gaza diminished and Hamas leaders were assassinated.

Early life and family

Born in Salfit in the West Bank in 1968, Jabarin studied Islamic law at Al-Najah University in Nablus.

Hamas activities

Founding of the Qassam Brigades

Jabarin joined Hamas in 1987 and helped to found the Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, leading its expansion into the northern West Bank. During the First Intifada, Jabarin led a youth brigade called "The Shooting Squads". He was credited for recruiting into Hamas Yahya Ayyash, an expert in IEDs and one of the planners of the abduction and killing of Nissim Toledano.

He has been responsible for attacks that killed Israeli soldiers and police.

Imprisonment and exile

For his role, alleged by Israel, in attacks including the kidnapping and murder of Israelis, Jabarin was arrested by the Shin Bet in 1993. In prison, Jabarin learned Hebrew, earned a degree, and started to write a book, with the introduction written by Saleh al-Arouri. It was published after his release from prison.

Despite a court sentencing him to life imprisonment and 35 years, he was released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011. But imprisonment for 18 years prevented him attending his mother's funeral.

After his release, Jabarin was exiled to Damascus, Syria, like many other Hamas officials released as part of the deal. Jabarin subsequently spent years living between Qatar and Turkey, ultimately settling in Istanbul, where he assumed leadership of the Hamas Financial Bureau. In Istanbul, Jabarin was a deputy to Saleh al-Arouri, who lived in Turkey until 2016.

Financial management

In the 1980s and 1990s Jabrin and other members of Al-Qassam's leadership funded attacks from their own pockets, Hebrew media allege that some of the money was borrowed from his mother.

But by 2024 Jabarin was the long-time head of Hamas's Financial Bureau, often described as Hamas's CEO, and managing the group's investment portfolio estimated at over $500 million, including in Turkish real estate and stock markets, and overseeing revenue streams including private donations that exceed tens of millions of dollars per year. According to The Wall Street Journal and The Times of Israel, the financial network Jabarin oversees raises, invests, and launders money destined for Hamas militant activities in the West Bank and Gaza via networks in Turkey, Lebanon, and the Arabian Gulf.

According to the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control Jabarin oversees Hamas's financial relationship with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Qods Force, as the relationship between the Qods Force and Hamas focused on increasing funding from Iran. According to The Wall Street Journal and The Times of Israel, Jabarin's financial network operated with the tacit approval of Turkish president Recep Erdogan, and Jabarin himself has holdings in Turkish companies.

For these activities, the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Jabarin a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2019, prohibiting all dealings with U.S. persons or within the United States. This was announced in a press release on the anniversary of the 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States. The announcement also included sanctions against people with alleged financial connections to ISIL, the anti-nationalist cult who declared war on Hamas the previous year, and killed two Hamas government border guards in a bombing at Rafah Crossing the year before. Hamas responded to that bombing with a crackdown on followers of the "deviant ideology".

Israeli sources told Reuters that Hamas' military budget was between $100 million to about $350 million per year, 98% to 99% lower than Israel's budget of $19 to $27 billion per year, which is 4.5% of Israel's GDP.

Funding of Hamas' civilian government in the Gaza Strip was unstable due to the three-way conflict between Israel, Hamas (in Gaza), and Fatah (led by President Abbas in Ramallah). For example, in 2017 President Abbas withheld taxes collected in the Gaza Strip and pressured Israel to further reduce the already limited electricity supply. During the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip many government employee salaries in the Gaza Strip still came via the Palestinian Authority controlled by the Abbas-led Fatah government in Ramallah, and the Fatah–Hamas conflict also caused instability in this funding, and in provision of basic services such as electricity.

Political leadership

In 2021, Jabarin was elected as the deputy to Saleh al-Arouri as leader of Hamas in the West Bank. Jabarin was considered al-Arouri's right-hand man to Arouri, Ynet referred Arouri as "the West Bank's Mohammed Deif".

At this time he also took on a role in the management of prisoner affairs within Hamas. His position was head of the Office of Martyrs, Wounded, and Prisoners.

Israel-Hamas war

After the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri in Dahieh on 2 January 2024, Jabarin succeeded him as Hamas's commander in the West Bank. Jabarin was considered a potential successor to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after Haniyeh's assassination in July due to his role in managing the group's finances and his relationship with Iran, Hamas's chief patron. Compared to more prominent Hamas leaders like Yahya Sinwar and al-Arouri, Jabarin is much less-known publicly, due to his location in Istanbul, Turkey, and the view within Hamas that he is not particularly sophisticated or charismatic, according to analysts and academics.

As of early 2024, Jabarin managed Hamas's prisoner portfolio and was involved in indirect negotiations over the Israel-Hamas war hostage crisis.

In a May 2024 interview with The New Arab, when asked about the role of the United States in negotiations, Jabarin said that the goals of the United States conflicted with Netanyahu's goals. Jabarin said that the United States wanted to avoid a regional war while Netanyahu's goal was to stay in power. He accused Netanyahu of obstructing United States' proposals to serve his own personal goals. Jabarin also said that Hamas had not yet used up all their options and that the West Bank would "surprise the enemy soon".

Resumption of suicide attacks

According to the Times of Israel, Jabarin was to blame for the resurgence of Hamas' use of suicide bombings in late August as the group's capabilities in Gaza diminished.

Israeli officials believe that Jabrin was responsible for dispatching the perpetrator of the Lehi Street bombing from Nablus to Tel Aviv. ZAKA volunteers at the scene said the event was unusual, and that it reminded them of the 1990s when suicide bombings in Israel were more common. People in nearby buildings also did not expect that the explosion was a suicide bomber because those attacks were more typical of twenty years ago. The bombing in Tel Aviv occurred less than three weeks after the assassination of Hamas' top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Suicide bombings were always a controversial tactic that many Palestinians objected to, even members of Hamas disagreed with each other about suicide bombings. After Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, and Haniyeh became Prime Minister of Palestine, Hamas announced that they planned to stop suicide bombings. Hamas politician Yihiyeh Musa told the Guardian that suicide operations had been a strategy of desperation and he claimed they were conducted in response to Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

After a speech on 29 August by former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal declaring the group's intention to revive the use of suicide bombings, Hamas conducted four bombings against Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The Times of Israel said that Hamas' return to bombings came amid perceptions within the militant group that Palestinians in the West Bank had not joined the fight against Israel. But the BBC reported that there had already been an increase in violence in the West Bank region since October 2023.

See also

• Palestinian Prisoners' Document