Mohammed Samer Mahmoud Jaber[a] (1998 – 29 August 2024), better known by his nom de guerreAbu Shujaa,[b] was a Palestinian militant from the Israeli-occupiedWest Bank.[2] A popular and well-known figure among many Palestinians,[3][4][5] he served as the leader of the Tulkarm Brigade from April 2022 until he was killed in an IDF raid in August 2024.
In 2022, he co-founded the Tulkarm Brigade alongside its first leader, Saif Abu Labdeh.[7] He assumed command of the Brigade after Labdeh was killed on 2 April 2022.[7] During his period of leadership, membership in the Brigade significantly increased.[5]
A key figure wanted by the Israeli authorities,[8] Jaber participated in planning and executing multiple attacks against Israeli targets, including a June 2024 shooting that killed an Israeli civilian in Qalqilya.[1] He was injured by Israeli raids into Tulkarm in December 2023, and was later thought to have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during one of their raids into Tulkarm in April 2024, but later surfaced attending a funeral for multiple slain Palestinian fighters.[4][8]
The 26 July 2024 Tulkarm confrontations were sparked after the security forces of the Palestinian Authority attempted to arrest Jaber while he was hospitalized after being injured by an explosive device. Local crowds of Palestinians intervened and forced the security forces to withdraw.[9]
On 29 August 2024, the YAMAM (Israel's National Counter-Terror Unit)[10][11] killed Jaber and four other militants during fighting inside and around a mosque in Tulkarm, part of the ongoing large-scale Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank. The military operation, which began a day before, is an escalation of the Israeli incursions into the region since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas offered condolences for Jaber's death.[1]
