Nidal Fat'hi Rabah Farahat

Nidal Fat’hi Rabah Farahat is the creator of the Qassam rocket, an homemade weapon produced by the Ezzedeen-al-qassam brigades.

Born on april 8, 1971, Farahat was a muslim devout who spent a lot of time at the mosque in the Shijaha neighborhood of Gaza City, his hometown. During the First Intifada, he took part in the palestinian resistance movement and had some connections to Hamas.

After the Intifada, Farahat was arrested following the death of senior Hamas militant Imad Aqel who was hiding in his house. Spending 3 years in israeli dentention, he returned in Gaza afterward.

At the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, in 2000, Farahat joined officially the Ezzedeen-al-qassam brigades and soon became an active member in the organisation, planning and carrying out numerous operations including mortar attacks on jewish settlements in the Gaza strip. In 2001, Farahat, after severeal months of work, produced the first prototype for the Qassam rocket and presented it to Ezzedeen-al-qassam brigades leaders Salah Shahade and Adnan al-Ghoul. Together with al-Ghoul, Farahat then worked on developping a better version of the Qassam, wich took the name of "Qassam 2" rocket and was extensively used from 2002 by Hamas militants to attack nearby israeli settlements and towns. Up to the beginning of 2005, the Qassam rockets were responsible for the death of 5 israelis, all in the israeli town of Sderot near the Gaza strip, from wich several hundreds rockets were fired over 3 years.

Farahat worked also as a bombmaker who supplied Ezzedeen-al-qassam militants with explosives devices and homemade rockets launchers like the Al-Bana and the Batar. He also worked, under the direction of Salama Hamad, on the conception of a drone that could fly over settlements and bomb them. On february 16th, 2003, Farahat was working along with other militants around newly acquired parts of the drone when one of them, booby-trapped, exploded. The device killed Farahat and 5 other militants.