Fauzi Mohammed Ayub ( ar, فوزي محمد أيوب), (also ''Fawzi''), (5 October, 1966 – May 2014) was a

Lebanese-Canadian Lebanese Canadians are Canadians of Lebanese origin. According to the 2016 Census there were 219,555 Canadians who claimed Lebanese ancestry, showing an increase compared to the 2006 Census, making them by far the largest group of people with ...

who was a member of

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

and arrested in 2002 by the

Israeli Defence Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...

. Two years later he was released to his wife and three children in Lebanon in a

prisoner exchange A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, dead bodies are involved in an exchange. Geneva Conventions Under the Geneva Convent ...

that saw 436 Palestinians and Lebanese released in exchange for

Elhanan Tannenbaum Elhanan Tannenbaum, ( he, אלחנן טננבוים, born 12 August 1946) is an Israeli colonel (res.), who was kidnapped in 2000 and held for more than three years by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. He was released in a prisoner exchange ...

and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers abducted four years earlier.Bell, Stewart.

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

,
Canadian authorities on lookout for terrorists
", July 26, 2006

United Jewish Communities The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), formerly the United Jewish Communities (UJC), is an American Jewish umbrella organization representing 146 Jewish Federations and 300 independent Jewish communities across North America, which rais ...

Israel-Hezbollah swap: Would-be hijacker born in Beirut may eventually return to Toronto, he says
/ref> His arrest brought debate to Canada over whether to declare Hezbollah a "terrorist" organisation, and whether to continue judging its military branch separately from its political and social service branches.Shai, Shaul, "The Axis of Evil", p. 70 He was killed in May 2014 while fighting in the Syrian Civil War by a

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

ambush in the

Battle of Aleppo (2012–2016) {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Battle of Aleppo{{lang, ar, مَعْرَكَةُ حَلَبَ , partof = the Syrian Civil War , image = , caption = Clockwise from top-left: A destroyed tank ...

Life

Ayub joined the Amal Movement in 1975 while studying, claiming that it was necessary to protect his family.Bell, Stewart. "Cold Terror", 2005 In 1983, he formally joined

, and three years later was part of a hijacking plot that targeted

Iraqi Airways Flight 163 Iraqi Airways Flight 163 was a Boeing 737-270C, registered YI-AGJ, that was hijacked in 1986. On 25 December 1986, en route from Baghdad's Saddam International Airport to Amman, Jordan, Flight 163 was hijacked by four men. Iraqi Airways securi ...

in Romania, hoping to exchange the airline hostages for Lebanese prisoners held by Iraq. However, the man designated to hand over small firearms to Ayub's group in the airport, named Sh'alan, was arrested, and confessed to the plot - leading Romanian authorities to immediately arrest Ayub when he entered the building. However, a second wave team targeted the same flight the following day and successfully hijacked it, although it crashed in the Arabian desert, killing 62 people aboard. Ayub was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, but was released after only ten months.

Life in Canada

In 1988, his uncle sponsored him to move to Canada under the auspice of a program designed specifically for displaced Lebanese to immigrate to the country. He received his

Canadian citizenship Canadian nationality law details the conditions in which a person is a national of Canada. With few exceptions, almost all individuals born in the country are automatically citizens at birth. Foreign nationals may naturalize after living in Ca ...

four years later. He married a woman from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, and began working at a

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

, while taking night courses at University. In 1994, his marriage fell apart due to arguments concerning his wife's desire to avoid having children; he remarried a Lebanese woman, and they had a son, Abbas, the following year. In 1997, a second son, Mohamed, was also born. He found work at a computer company, but moved back to Lebanon in 2000, citing his wife's unhappiness away from their home country. A third child was also born to the couple.Bell, Stewart. "Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism around the World", 2005

Return to Lebanon

After returning to Lebanon, Ayub and his wife opened a

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who ...

and ran a construction supply outlet, but his businesses began to falter, and the family found themselves in increasing debt. Around this time, he was contacted by old friends in

who suggested there was still a place for him in the organisation. Several months later, Ayub flew from Lebanon to Greece, and there obtained a forged American passport under the name ''Frank Bushy'' with which he sailed to

Haifa, Israel Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

in October 2000.Levitt, Dr. Matthew
Testimony at "Adding Hezbollah to the EU Terrorist List
, June 20, 2007 Upon arriving in Israel, he headed for the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

Canadian seen as planner of Hebron attack
/ref> While in the West Bank, he launched a failed attempt to free three prominent prisoners,

Mustafa Dirani Mustafa Dirani ( ar, مصطفى الديراني; born 1951) is a former head of security in the Amal Movement in Lebanon. In 1987, he started reaching out to pro-Iran sources, and eventually established contact between them and the rest of the ...

Abdel Karim Obeid Abdel Karim Obeid (; ar, الشيخ عبد الكريم عبيد; born 1957) is a Sheikh and Imam of the village of Jibchit in south Lebanon, high-place of Lebanese Shiism. Life Regarded as the spiritual leader and soldier of the 'Islamic Amal ...

and Jihad Shuman, leaving twelve people dead. In late 2002, Ayub was questioned by Israeli authorities, and explained he was in the region to help oppressed Muslims as a volunteer. He was arrested on June 25 after Israeli forces stormed the

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, al ...

where he was located, and Canada was informed of his arrest eight days later. He received three consular visits from Canada, and was tried in Tel Aviv district court by judge Zacharia Caspi.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayub, Fauzi 1966 births 2014 deaths Hezbollah hijackers Lebanese emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Lebanese people imprisoned abroad Canadian people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of Romania Prisoners and detainees of Israel Military personnel killed in the Syrian civil war