Said Seyam

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Said Seyam (also reported as Saeed or Sayed Seyam) is the Interior Minister of the Palestinian government of March 2006.

Said Seyam (1975-2005) (Arabic: سعيد صيام‎), was a Hamas commander of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Yunis.

Seyam joined the ranks of Hamas in 1987 and was one of the founder members of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was put in prison by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on two occasions, in 1991 and 1993, but each time was released before serving his full sentence. Form 1994 to 2000, Seyam served in the Palestinian Preventive Security forces, but was still active within Hamas, and he resigned from his post shortly after the eruption of the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Said Seyam was reported by Hamas as one of the pioneer of mortar and Qassam rocket attacks on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which caused them to be virtually besieged from 2001 to their evacuation by Israel in September 2005. According to his fellow fighters, Seyam was injured 3 times during that period, although the cause of these injuries were not disclosed, and evaded at least one assassination attempt by the IDF in late 2004.

Israel identified Seyam as the top leader of the Ezzedeen-al-qassam brigades in Khan Yunis, but Hamas only identified him as the leader of the group's fighters in the Al-Almal neighborhood of the city, the commander of the overall area being Muhammad Al-Sanwar, as revealed by the brigades on September 3, 2005.

During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Seyam planned several operations against the Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip and the Jewish settlements, in addition to fighting the IDF during numerous incursion in Khan Yunis. Hamas credited him for the intelligence gathering and operational supervision of an infiltration by al-qassam fighter Ismael Breis in the Rafa Yam settlement which killed 2 settlers on November 6, 2002. He was also identified as the planner of an operation against the IDF post of Orphan, in the settlement block of Gush Katif, in which a tunnel filled with explosives caused extensive damage to military installation and killed one soldier on June 27, 2004. In addition, Seyam oversaw many mortar and Qassam rocket shellings on various settlements. His responsibility for lethal attack was not clearly established. From 2001 to 2005, these bombings killed 2 Israeli soldiers, 1 Jewish settler as well as 1 Thai, 1 Chinese and 2 Palestinian workers around greenhouses in the area.

Said Seyam was killed on Sunday, July 17, 2005 by a single gunshot wound to the neck from an Israeli sniper.

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