Israeli law enforcement authorities on Wednesday carried out a raid at the gravesite near Haifa of arch-terrorist Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a Syrian who carried out attacks against Jews in Mandatory Palestine during the 1930s, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Thursday.
Israel Police officers and Israel Land Authority inspectors dismantled an illegal tent built by a waqf (Islamic trust) adjacent to the gravesite, as well as unauthorized security cameras and a sign inciting terrorism.
The raid on the cemetery in the former Arab village of Balad al-Sheikh which is currently within the jurisdiction of the city of Nesher, came four months after Ben-Gvir called for the grave’s removal.
את קברו של הארכי טרוריסט עז א-דין אל-קסאם בנשר צריך להעיף. ואתמול לפנות בוקר עשינו את הצעד הראשון. ברה... pic.twitter.com/mgjSTG7Be4
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) December 11, 2025
“This is the first step, an important one,” the minister said in a video of the raid posted to X on Thursday. He said the next step would be exhuming the gravesite in its entirety. “That’s governance,” Ben-Gvir said, touting his campaign promise.
During the operation to dismantle the mourning tent, police removed a Waqf guard who tried to stop the raid, the Israel Hayom daily reported. The guard was said to have shouted, “What are you doing?” and Ben-Gvir yelled back in Arabic, “Out, out,” according to Hebrew reports.
“They talk about waqf land and all sorts of nonsense. This is land of the Land of Israel; all of it is the State of Israel. These are our lands, and this display of illegal takeover ends here,” Ben-Gvir declared in the video.
Al-Qassam was a pioneer of terrorism in pre-state Israel, active between 1925 and 1935. Originally from Syria, he fled after targeting the local authorities there, later forming terrorist groups in the Land of Israel and carrying out attacks until, after his suspected role in the murder of Palestine Police constable Moshe Rosenfeld, al-Qassam and three of his followers were killed, and five captured, by British police near Jenin in 1935.
The Gaza-based Hamas terrorist group later named its armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as well as short-range rockets, after him.
