Muhammad Hassan Shama, revered by Hamas loyalists but nearly
anonymous outside Gaza, was one of the eight founders of the resistance group
in the 1980s. After his death, Hamas publicly announced Friday for the first
time that Shama had been the leader of the secretive Shoura Council, its top
governing body.
The identity of the council’s members is a closely guarded
secret because of fears they could be targeted by Israel.
The founder and first leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin,
was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2004.
On Friday, Hamas released a statement mourning Shama’s
death. Shama died, the group said, “after a long journey of jihad that he
spent, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in teaching, educating and promoting the
noble cause of Islam and jihad.” Shama was born in 1935 in the city of
Ashkelon, now in Israel, according to the Hamas statement. He became a refugee,
along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, in the war that followed
Israel’s creation in 1948.
He was arrested and jailed repeatedly by Israel. In 1992, he
was among some 400 Hamas men whom Israel expelled to south Lebanon. They were
later allowed back under international pressure.
Shama’s funeral was held at Gaza’s biggest mosque after
Friday prayers with the participation of top Hamas leaders, including Prime
Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
