Today marks the 21st anniversary of the ascension of the martyr Muhammad Hazza al-Ghoul, after he carried out a martyrdom operation in which 20 settlers, including soldiers, were killed and more than 74 others were wounded, near occupied Jerusalem.

Hazza Al-Ghoul was born in 1978 AD, in Al-Fara’a camp in Tubas Governorate, to a Palestinian refugee family from Sarafand Al-Ammar, near Ramla. He has five brothers, of whom he was the youngest.

Al-Ghoul memorized the Holy Qur’an as a child, and was committed to the mosque and its circles. He worked with a group of his brothers to develop Islamic advocacy work in the camp. He also participated in various resistance activities within the ranks of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the West Bank. 

Al-Ghoul was distinguished by his excellence in academic achievement, and in 1997 he joined the Faculty of Sharia at An-Najah National University. He moved to live in the city of Nablus to continue his studies, and became the Emir of the Islamic Bloc there. 

In 2001, Al-Ghoul enrolled in his master’s studies at the College of Graduate Studies, specializing in Sharia, at An-Najah National University.

At dawn on Tuesday, 6/18/2002, Martyr al-Ghoul headed to occupied Jerusalem while fasting and carried out a martyrdom operation there. He chose his target, which was bus No. 32. 

The ghoul boarded the bus outside the “Gilo” settlement between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, heading to occupied Jerusalem, and blew himself up while it was stopping at a traffic light south of the Holy City. The explosion destroyed the bus, which was crowded with occupation soldiers and settlers, and its parts were scattered in the area. 

Among the things that the ogre mentioned in his will: “How beautiful it is to be the response, and for my bones to become fragments for the enemies to explode, not for the love of killing, but... so that we may live as people live.”