Ahmed Nasser (Governor of Rafah)
Ahmed Nasser (أحمد نصر) has been the Palestinian Authority‘s governor of Rafah since 2014. Due to the current Gaza-West Bank split, Hamas has refused to recognise his appointment. He is also a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, secretary of the party’s leadership committee in the southern governorates, and deputy Fatah commissioner for mobilization and organization for the Gaza Strip.
Nasser spent 15 years in Israeli prison before being released in 1985 in a prisoner swap. After his liberation, he co-founded Fatah’s Shabiba youth movement alongside Mohammed Dahlan. In 1987, he was deported by Israel to Jordan where he worked in the PLO’s Foundation for the Families of Martyrs and Prisoners. He returned to Gaza upon the signing of the Oslo Accords and won a parliamentary seat in the 1996 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). He was also a member of the Fatah Higher Council (FHC) during the 1990s.