Abdullah Abu Samhadana (Governor of Deir al-Balah)*

Abdullah Abu Samhadana (عبدالله أبو سمهدانة) was born in Rafah in 1950 and Palestinian Authority governor of Deir al-Balah until he passed away in April 2020.

In his early career he worked in Amman and then came back to Gaza to lecture at the Islamic University and was one of the founders of Fatah’s Shabiba youth movement. He was arrested several times by Israeli forces and spent more than six years in prison. He was expelled from Palestine in 1988 and came back in 1993 following the signing of the Oslo Accords. During the mid-1990s he was a member of Fatah’s Higher Committee (FHC).