Hisham Al Saedni ( ar, هشام السعيدني), also known by the

nom de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Abu Walid al-Maqdisi, was a Palestinian military activist and a Muslim leader and founding member of the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

and he was also leader of

al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad ( en, Group of Monotheism and Jihad), which may be abbreviated as JTJ or Jama'at, was a Islamic extremist Salafi jihadist terrorist group. It was founded in Jordan in 1999 and was led by Jordanian national Abu Musab a ...

, a branch of

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

in Gaza.

Early life

Al-Saedni was born in

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Lebanon * Ghazzeh, a village in ...

in around 1965. He lived in Egypt and Jordan. He fought for

Al Qaeda in Iraq Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI; ar, القاعدة في العراق, al-Qā'idah fī al-ʿIrāq) or Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia ( ar, القاعدة في بلاد الرافدين, al-Qā'idah fī Bilād ar-Rāfidayn), officially known as ''Tanzim Qaidat a ...

. Egypt wanted to arrest him due to his alleged involvement in attacks against Egypt's tourist sites.

Terrorist activities

On 5 February 2011, Al-Saedni, then also known as Sheikh 'Ahed Ahmad 'Abd Al-Karim Al-Sa'idani, was the leader of a Gazan jihadist group calling itself Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, and posted a

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

stating that Jews and Christians may be targeted in lethal attacks such as those of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

because they are "aggressive combatants" and "fundamentally not innocent". The fatwa also stated that it is not permissible to refrain from such attacks for fear of hurting Muslims, "because this would mean stopping the jihad". Al-Saedni tried to unite all the different groups of

Salafi jihadi Salafi jihadism or jihadist-Salafism is a transnational, hybrid religious-political ideology based on the Sunni sect of Islamism, seeking to establish a global caliphate, characterized by the advocacy for "physical" (military) jihadist and Sa ...

sts in Gaza to form and lead the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem. On 2 March 2011, Hamas authorities in Gaza arrested Al Saedni for his involvement with the earlier jihad operations of al-Tawhid wal-Jihad allegedly related to the Salafist jihadist movement. During his detention, in April 2011, Al Saedni's supporters from al-Tawhid wal-Jihad kidnapped the Italian pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni and later killed him. He was released in August 2012, but was killed in an Israeli airstrike two months later.

Death

Hisham Al Saedni was killed on 13 October 2012 by an Israeli Air Force strike together with Ashraf Al Sabah who was also a Salafist. The attack occurred on a busy street in the Jabalia district of

Gaza City Gaza (;''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998), , p. 761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory in Palestine, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". ar, غَزَّة ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, i ...

. Israel said it was responding to an earlier rocket attack on southern Israel.BBC News: Israel Gaza - Air strikes leave four dead in 24 hours
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saedni, Hisham 2012 deaths Palestinian Islamists 1965 births Members of al-Qaeda in Iraq Leaders of Islamic terror groups