"For Palestinians, Dave is not only a battlefield commander, but also a cultural symbol that represents national pride and resilience in the face of Israeli aggression. ”
In 2002, the Israeli military launched a "targeted killing" operation, and although a missile hit the wrong floor, he lost an eye.
In 2006, he survived another Israeli assassination attempt, only to be partially paralyzed after his legs and one arm were blown off.
In 2014, Israel carried out another "purge plan", and his wife, son and daughter were all killed, and he was the only one who survived.
In 2021, Israel launched two consecutive assassinations against him in 11 days, both of which ended in failure.
Israel's"Mossad".Known as one of the world's top intelligence agencies, its command is known for being bold, radical, and secretive, and its level is difficult to match in the world. In the half century since its founding, the Mossad has repeatedly shocked the world with its brilliant achievements, and was even once praised as "never missing".
But it is such a world-renowned ** organization, but because of the name Dave, it was firmly nailed to the pillar of shame. After 26 years of pursuit and more than a dozen large-scale targeted operations, not only failed to take his life, but also didn't even take a **.
So, who exactly is Dave?Why does Palestine put him on the "altar" and why does Israel regard him as the "number one wanted target"?
Once one of the most important cities in the Middle East, Gaza is ideally located close to the Egyptian border and the Mediterranean Sea, and is the lifeblood of water transportation. But now, it's known"The city is like a prison, and the people are not able to make a living".
Because of its strategic importance, Gaza has a history of war, with ancient Jews, Assyrians, Egyptians and Persians occupying it in turn. After the Jews returned to Palestine, in order to compete for survival resources, the "Five Middle East Wars" broke out with the Arabs, and Gaza became the hardest hit area of the war.
As a result of the Israeli aggression, large numbers of Palestinians have been expelled from their homeland and have fled to Gaza, the last land of their homeland. Once Gaza's world-famous specialty was citrus, now there are endless refugee camps.
Israel has built a 10-metre-high concrete wall on the periphery of the Gaza Strip, with watchtowers every 10 metres, and 300 metres beyond the wall is the zone of separation, and any intruder will be shot mercilessly. At sea, Israel only allows fishermen to fish within 3 kilometers of the coastline, and Israel patrols the sea at any time to reach out to fishing boats that cross the line.
The war and Israel's siege tactics have left the population of the Gaza Strip in extreme poverty, with 70 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, sustained only by United Nations relief.
Mohammed Diab Masri was born in a refugee camp in Gaza.
Like most Gazans, Masri's father had no specific job and spent most of his time supporting the family by doing chores such as weaving and renovating. Because of his meager income, Masri chose to drop out of school at an early age and follow his father around to earn a living.
A bleak and hopeless childhood left a lifelong shadow over Masri. But he was also fortunate that in Gaza, where "many children could not grow up", he did not die because of war and famine. His father's hard work and frugality for half of his life finally made up enough for him to go to college.
Although he did not have a few years of basic education, Masri quickly showed his outstanding talent when he entered university. He excelled in his academic performance, was good at organizing and communicating, and when he served in the student council, he was the head of the school's social practice activities, and later founded a drama group, which he often led in his own performances.
In college, Masri was an idol, and everyone had high hopes for him. But when he was about to graduate, an accident changed the trajectory of his entire life.
On 9 December 1987, four Palestinian workers were killed in a run over an Israeli military vehicle in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza. The incident ignited a long-pent-up anger among the Palestinian people, who spontaneously rushed into the streets and threw stones at the Israeli army. And this ** activity soon spread to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, forming a large-scale uprising of unprecedented scale that lasted for 6 years.
It was also in this intifada that the largest anti-Israeli forces in Palestine were armed"Hamas".Officially established. For Hamas,Every member should not only resist the Israeli invasion, but also regain the land plundered by the invaders, save the oppressed people, restore the unity of Palestine, and usher in permanent peace. Their highest goal is only one sentence:
"By force, remove Israel from the map. ”Masri, one of Hamas's earliest members, gave up his studies and a newly stable life to give himself a new name, Dave. The children who grew up in this refugee camp finally chose to put pen to paper and pick up the first to defend the motherland.
Of course, Israel's intelligence agencies weren't vegetarians in the first place. As Hamas grew rapidly, the 24-year-old Dave was soon targeted and arrested by Israel, where he was detained for 16 months. But given that he didn't have much of a "malignant act" at the time, Israel eventually agreed to Dave's bail.
And this time he spared Dave, which was also regarded by Israel later"One of the most wrong decisions".
At Hamas, Dave has shown his ability to excel beyond the ordinary.
He was proficient in bomb manufacturing and was involved in the manufacture of Hamas's first improvised rocketsHe is also the chief architect of a decade-long plan for Gaza's underground tunnel network, which allowed Hamas soldiers to enter Israel from Gaza.
In May 2000, the Palestinian military, under Israeli duress, arrested Dave again and held him in custody for a year. While in prison, Dave managed to meet Salah Shehad, who was also a "cellmate". The two were like-minded and agreed to jointly form an elite armed force affiliated with Hamas after they were released from prison, which became famous later"Kasan Brigade".
Named after Az-Din Qassam, a well-known Palestinian hero of anti-aggression, the Qassam Brigade is not actually a well-organized brigade-level military unit, but a unified name for Hamas's combat groups, which were formerly a death squad of several hundred men responsible for gathering intelligence on the activities of the Israel Defense Forces and waging an armed struggle against Israel.
There is no heavy equipment, the infantry is barely enough, and there are few heavy firearms and suppressive firepower, but it is such a "millet plus rifle" unit, but it has become the most eye-catching protagonist in the previous Palestinian-Israeli conflicts. During years of confrontational operations, hundreds of Israelis were killed in attacks perpetrated by the Qassam Brigades.
But this force is also full of tragedy.
Nearly every commander-in-chief of the Qassam Brigade has not been given a good death, and its two founders, Salah Shehad and Ibrahim al-Muqad, were killed in Israeli missile attacks. After the death of his old partner Shehad, Dave took over as commander of the Qassam Brigade and has been in charge of all Hamas's military operations since then.
Dave's inauguration was also the beginning of Israel's nightmare. He was a military attainment and adventurous, not only leading his troops to resist the Israeli invasion in Gaza, but also taking the initiative to send a small detachment to infiltrate Israel to carry out raids. A considerable part of Israel's defeat in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the past 20 years is due to the achievements of Dave and the Qassam Brigade.
In 2005, Hamas released a videotape. In the shot, Dave, dressed in a black shirt and with a black cloth covering his face, sits on a chair and says something in a deep voice:
"You have occupied our land, but we assure you that tomorrow all Palestinian land will be your hell. ”He swore to all Palestinians that Hamas would continue to resist Israel in armed force until the Israelis were driven out of the West Bank, thus achieving the ultimate elimination of Israel.
In Palestine, Dave is a totem of faith, and his inspiration has strengthened the resolve of thousands of Palestinians to resist foreign invasion. And his existence also disgraced the Mossad **, who had assassinated him for a long time.
In Israel, people refer to Dave as the "Grim Reaper" or "Cat of Nine Lives". The "Grim Reaper" is because every time the Qassam Brigade appears, Israel has to pay a considerable price. "Cat of Nine Lives" describes his ability to survive assassinations by the Israeli military and the Mossad every time.
Legend has it that Dave never stays in one place for long periods of time, sleeping in a new place every night, and there is even speculation that he is likely to live in Gaza's labyrinthine underground tunnels.
And from a factual point of view, since taking the helm of the Kasan Brigade, Dave has completely disappeared and never appeared in public with his true face. In recent years, every time he speaks, it is through recordings, silhouettes, masks, etc.
Now there are no more than three Dave** in the world, the clearest one of which is torn from a very dilapidated identity document, and the rest** are either wearing masks or only taking pictures of their backs, and these are also difficult to distinguish between real and fake, and it is impossible to identify whether it is Dave himself.
In January 2011, Dave's mother died, and all Hamas executives attended the funeral, except for whether he was in person. And one of the theories now accepted by the outside world is to speculate that Dave was disguised as an old man at that time and had been guarding the most hidden corners.
With the exception of his family and a handful of senior Hamas, Dave has hardly been seen. And with the death of his parents and the death of his wife and children in the Israeli attack, it is unknown how many people in this world have seen Dave's true face.
On October 7, 2023, Israel was suddenly hit by a large-scale rocket attack. Although Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-rocket system was immediately defended, thousands of rockets could not intercept all of them. At the same time, there have been unidentified armed attacks along the Israeli border.
More than 40 Israelis were killed and 740 injured in the attack overnight.
That is, on the same day, the Qassam Brigade announced that it had launched a new round of names to Israel"Al-Aqsa flood".of military operations. And this time, the driving force behind the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is Dave. He spoke to the outside world hours after the attack:
"Given that the crimes against the civilians of our country continue, given the carnival of occupation and its disregard for peace resolutions, and given the support of the United States and the West, we have decided to put an end to this, so that the enemy understands that he can no longer go unchecked. ”Some people say that Dave is a madman, because an attack he carried out on a whim gave Israel another reason to go to war against Palestine, and it was he who caused innocent civilians to die in the flames of war and left Palestine with lost ground.
But such a statement ignores the most important facts:
First, Israel's aggression against Palestine has never stopped, and the harm to civilians is multidimensional and multifaceted. As Dave has previously claimed, the Qassam Brigades launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in response to Israel's killing and wounding of hundreds of Palestinians over the past year.
Second, as the aggressed party, without the Qassam Brigade and Hamas's long-term resistance, Palestine would have been "destroyed" by Israel's encroachment.
Third: Although the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has paid a great price for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it has also made the world's attention focus on the Middle East. The indiscriminate attacks on civilians have made Israel completely stand on the opposite side of the world, isolated by many countries, and even severed diplomatic relations and withdrew diplomatic ambassadors. Israel is also a huge loser in this war.
Dave is a hero in the hearts of the Palestinian people. He fought for his homeland, for the fight against aggression. He was born in a refugee camp and witnessed tens of millions of Palestinians being "imprisoned" in Gaza by Israel, and his wife and children were killed in Israeli air strikes.
As Dave himself said:
"The struggle is to make the enemy understand that their era of unbridled and lawlessness is over. ”As bystanders, we cannot define whether there is an absolutely just side to a war. But as a country that also has a century-old history of anti-aggression struggle, we should know that although what Dave and the Kasan Brigade did may not be right, they chose to fight for their country and are heroes.