Siam, Said

Said Muhammad Shabaan Siam was born in 1959 in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip ^{[1] [2] [3]} , his family was from the village of Al-Jura near Ashkelon (from there, Ismail Haniya and Ahmed Yasin ^[2] ) In 1980, Siam graduated from a seminar of teachers in Ramallah ^[1] , became a teacher of natural sciences and mathematics ^[2] . Then Siam continued his education at Al-Quds Open University , graduated in 2000 ^{[1] [3]} and received his first degree in the history of Islamic culture ^[2] .

From 1980 to 2003 ^[3] Siam worked at a school in the Gaza Middle East Relief and Organization Agency (UNRWA) ^[1] in Gaza, but left his job as a result of a conflict with employers because of his political views ^{[2] ]} . Siam engaged in ideological and social activities among the population, worked as a voluntary preacher and imam in mosques in the Gaza Strip ^[2] .

From 1989 to 1992, Siam was arrested 4 times. In 1992, he was among others deported to the village of Marge Zukhor in Lebanon ; in 1995, he was arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces. Siam participated in important forums of the Hamas organization, represented it in the Committee for Control of National and Islamic Forces . From December 2001 to April 2002, Siam was a spokesman for Hamas, participated in the creation of the Al-Aqsa Hamas radio station in the Gaza Strip ^[2] . In January 2006, Siam was elected to the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority ^{[1] [3]} . After the elections, in which Hamas won, he became the Minister of Internal Affairs and National Security of the autonomy in the government of Ismail Khania ^[2] .

Hamas’s election victory led to armed clashes between his militants and Fatah militants, a more moderate Palestinian movement led by the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]} . Moreover, according to the statements of Fatah representatives, Siam was one of the initiators of these clashes ^[4] , and in October 2006 a group close to Fatah of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade even sentenced Siam (along with several other Hamas leaders) to death ^{[6 ]} . In the spring of 2006, Siam organized special armed forces directly subordinate to it, opposed to the Palestinian police controlled by Fatah. Although Abbas initially annulled this decision of Siam, he later agreed to the existence of such forces, provided that they would have auxiliary functions ^{[5] [5]} .

In the spring of 2007, Siam sharply opposed the agreement reached in Mecca between Fatah and Hamas on the creation of a government of national unity and announced that the formations it controlled would continue the struggle ^[8] . Siam did not enter the new government ^[9] .

In June 2007, Siam became one of the leaders of the Gaza coup ^[10] when Hamas seized the sector and destroyed Fatah-controlled institutions in it, after which Abbas announced the removal of the Haniyeh government ^{[11] [12]} . Hamas did not recognize this decision ^[13] . In September of that year, the Hamas forces created and led by Siam were transformed into the official police and security services ^[14] .

At the end of December 2008, the Israeli armed forces launched a military operation against Hamas in Gaza ^[12] . During the operation on January 15, 2009, Siam died as a result of an air raid ^{[15] [16]} .

It is known that Siam had six children ^{[2] [3]} .

• When writing this article, we used material ( text in Wikisource ) from Lentapedia , available under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Unported license .