PROFILE - Zakaria Zubeidi walks free: Palestinian ‘dragon’ who defied the hunter

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Israel on Thursday released Zakaria Zubeidi, a senior leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement and commander of its armed wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the West Bank as part of the third batch of the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal brokered with Hamas.

Zubeidi was released alongside 109 other Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli captives Arbel Yehud, Agam Berger, and Gadi Mozes.

Son of Jenin refugee camp

Zubeidi, a former member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, hails from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, which has been under continuous Israeli military operations since Jan. 21.

Zubeidi, 49, was one of the most prominent Palestinian figures held in Israeli jails. He described himself in his master’s thesis as "the dragon that defeats the hunter."

Legendary prison escape

On Sept. 6, 2021, Zubeidi escaped from Gilboa Prison, one of Israel’s most heavily fortified detention centers, alongside five other Palestinian inmates, by digging a tunnel from their cell.

Days later, Israeli forces recaptured all six fugitives, but the daring escape was widely hailed as legendary among Palestinian and Arab communities.

Zubeidi was originally arrested by Israeli forces in 2019. A senior Israeli intelligence official at the time mockingly referred to him as "a street cat that was finally caught in the trap."

While no formal verdict was issued against him at the time of his arrest, he was later sentenced to five years in prison for his escape from Gilboa, while charges related to attacks on Israeli targets remained unresolved.

Zubeidi has a long history of armed resistance against Israeli occupation, having spent years behind bars.

In 2007, he and a group of Palestinian fighters surrendered their weapons to the Palestinian Authority as part of a deal with Israel, under which he was granted Israeli amnesty.

Following the amnesty, Zubeidi shifted his focus to theater arts and pursued a master’s degree in political science, writing a thesis titled The Hunter and the Dragon which explored his relationship with Israel.

According to Palestinian sources, Israel has demolished Zubeidi’s home three times.

Roots

Born in the Jenin refugee camp, Zubeidi grew up fatherless as one of seven siblings. In 2002, during Israel’s invasion of Jenin, his mother Samira and his brother Taha were killed by Israeli forces.

Last May, his son Dawoud succumbed to injuries sustained in an armed confrontation with Israeli forces in Jenin.

Last September, his other son Mohammad was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the West Bank city of Tubas along with several other Palestinians.

At just 13 years old, Zubeidi was shot by Israeli forces while throwing stones at them. At 15, he was arrested for the first time, serving six months in prison.

Later, he was detained again for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.

By 2001, during the Second Intifada (2000–2005), Zubeidi had become a military commander for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, leading armed resistance.

Israeli media at the time described him as "the de facto ruler of Jenin."

In 2002, during the Israeli military reoccupation of the West Bank, Zubeidi led a fierce battle in Jenin refugee camp, in which the Israeli army killed 52 Palestinians, in the process killing 23 Israeli soldiers. The battle also caused massive destruction to Palestinian homes.

In 2007, he was elected to Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, the second-most important body in Fatah, after its Central Committee, led by current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Surviving assassination attempts

Zubeidi survived four assassination attempts, the most notable of which was in 2004, when Israeli forces killed five other Palestinians, including a 14-year-old child, by targeting a vehicle they believed he was in.

Later that year, Israeli special forces raided the Jenin camp to eliminate Zubeidi, but encountered heavy resistance, resulting in nine Palestinian fatalities, while Zubeidi managed to escape.

In 2005, Israeli forces tried to ambush Zubeidi near his hideout, and in 2006, another attempt to capture him failed, as he once again evaded arrest.

Amnesty and rearrest

After the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the armed resistance landscape in Palestine shifted. Arafat’s successor Mahmoud Abbas sought to dismantle Fatah’s armed wing and initiate a political process with Israel.

On July 15, 2007, Israel granted amnesty to several Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade members, including Zubeidi, in exchange for their surrender to the Palestinian Authority.

Zubeidi defended his decision in an interview, saying: "The Israelis know that I halted armed resistance in favor of giving political negotiations a chance. That is why I was granted amnesty."

But four years later, on Dec. 29, 2011, Israel revoked his amnesty, despite Zubeidi's insistence that he had not violated its terms.

He remained in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, until Israeli forces arrested him in January 2019.

At the time, Israel accused him and Palestinian lawyer Tariq Barghout of engaging in "new incitement activities."

Israeli intelligence officer Yitzhak Ilan, a former Shin Bet operative, compared Zubeidi to "a street cat we tried to catch multiple times, but he always slipped away. Now he has been arrested again for returning to terrorism."

‘The Dragon'

Despite his years in detention, resistance, and evasion, Zubeidi completed high school, earned a bachelor’s degree in social work, and pursued a master’s degree at Birzeit University.

His thesis, The Hunter and the Dragon: Fugitively in the Palestinian Condition 1968–2018, was a metaphorical reflection of his life in resistance.

He likened himself to "the dragon," drawing from an ancient legend in which the dragon ultimately triumphs over the hunter after a long, relentless chase.

In his master’s thesis, Zakaria discussed the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina, drawing parallels to the Palestinian reality.

His close friend, Jamal Hawil, told Anadolu Agency: "Zakaria planned his prison escape before he was even jailed. He symbolized the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina as a parallel to the Palestinian struggle."

On Zakaria’s inability to complete his master’s thesis, Hawil stated: "Today, Zakaria has completed his thesis through a real-life experience – his prison escape – turning it into a message for future generations."

On a moment during the 2002 Battle of Jenin, Hawil recounted: "We ran out of ammunition, and I told Zakaria: 'The fight is over.' He replied: 'It’s not over – we are the ones who decide when it ends.' He refused to surrender and hid among the rubble until the Israeli army withdrew. He survived.” ​​​​​​​