Fatah terrorist commander killed by Israeli security forces

Daoud Zubeidi was a commander in Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

By David Hellerman, World Israel News

Daoud Zubeidi, a commander in the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, died from injuries sustained in a shootout with Israeli security forces.

Zubeidi, who has been identified as a battalion commander in the Fatah-aligned group, was in a building in the Palestinian town of Burqin, near Jenin, when Israeli special forces surrounded the building in a counter-terror operation on Friday morning.

In the last two months, 19 Israelis have been killed in terror attacks across the country, with most of the Palestinians coming from the Jenin area.

According to Hebrew media reports, Zubeidi was one of 13 terror suspects injured in the nearly four-hour shootout. He was initially treated in Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital for gunshot wounds in the abdomen but subsequently transferred to Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center as his situation deteriorated.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad threatened to “open the gates of hell” if Zubeidi, 41, was harmed while in Israeli care.

On Saturday night, MKs Ayman Odeh of the Joint List and Itamar Ben-Gvir of Otzma Yehudit were both barred by military police from entering Zubeidi’s hospital room.

“It is delusional that a terrorist who shot at soldiers and Yamam officers is being treated at our expense in an Israeli hospital,” said Ben Gvir.

Odeh did not comment. Last year, he and Ben-Gvir scuffled in a Rehovot hospital where Hamas terrorist Miqdad Qawasmeh was on a hunger strike.

Noam Raz, a 23-year veteran of the Israeli Border Police’s elite Yamam counter-terror unit  and father of six, was killed in the shootout.

Zubeidi was the younger brother of another well-known Palestinian terrorist, Zakaria Zubeidi. Also a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Zakaria Zubeidi planned and directed numerous terror attacks during the Second Intifada.

He was one six Palestinian security prisoners who managed to escape from Israel’s Gilboa Prison in 2021, the most serious prison breakout in Israeli history. All the fugitives were recaptured after a nearly two-week manhunt.