Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was born in Al-Jura village on the outskirts of the occupied Palestinian city of Askalan in June 1929 to a well-off, committed family who were depending on farming and fishing as their main source of livelihood. His father died when he was less than five years old. 

At 16, he sustained a spinal injury that left him quadriplegic and was forced to use a wheelchair for life while playing sports at Gaza's beach in mid-July 1952. 

Education and Work

Yassin started his academic career in Al-Jura where he completed his fourth grade. Due to the abject poverty that his family suffered following their displacement from their home during the 1948 Nakba, Yassin had to leave school for three years, forcing him to work to help provide for his family, along with his elder brothers.   

Accompanying his family and tens of thousands of refugees to the Gaza Strip, Yassin resumed his elementary and secondary education in Gaza City. 

He worked as a teacher of Arabic and Islamic studies in a state school in Gaza. 
In 1964, he reattended high school and left Gaza to Egypt where he spent a year studying in Ain Shams University before being detained by Egyptian authorities, which banned him from entering the country over his Islamic activism. 

Social life
A father of five sons, two of whom died soon after their birth, and eight daughters, Yassin, who got married in 1961, lived in various areas across the Gaza Strip before settling in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in Gaza Strip.  

Characteristics 
Yassin was a very popular figure among the Palestinian people and was known for his good morals and values. He led an ascetic life, turning down several offers to renovate his humble home. 
Despite his paralysis, Yassin was determined to complete his studies and advocate for resistance to the Israeli occupation. 
A man of great wisdom and perception, Yassin managed to lead Hamas and handle the challenges facing the Palestinian cause at all levels.  

Cultural background 
During his incarceration in Israeli occupation prisons, Yassin managed to memorize the Holy Quran in 1990 and read many books on Islamic studies and history.    
He founded several Islamic organizations and established security and military groups to resist the Israeli occupation. 

Milestones in his life
Yassin dedicated his life to serving his religion, homeland, and people. 
In 1965, he was jailed for a month by Egyptian authorities over his Islamic activism. 

The Israeli occupation detained him in 1984 and sentenced him to 13 years. He was released 11 months later as part of a prisoner swap agreement between the Israeli occupation and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command. 

On 14 December 1987, he established the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas with the sole aim of resisting the Israeli occupation and restoring Palestinian rights. 
On 18 May 1989, he was arrested within a large-scale arrest campaign of Hamas leaders due to the implementation of resistance operations against the Zionist occupation.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and fifteen years for establishing the military wing of Hamas, which is responsible for kidnapping and killing occupation Zionist soldiers.

Through a deal between Jordan's King Hussein and the Zionist occupation's entity, Sheikh Yassin was released on 1 October 1997, in exchange for two Israeli occupation Mossad agents who had failed in an attempt to assassinate Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas' political bureau at that time.

The Palestinian Authority imposed house arrest twice at the instigation of the occupation authorities in December 2001, and in June 2002.

Sheikh Yassin survived two assassination attempts by the Zionist occupation, in Ramadan in 2002 in the Al-Rahma Mosque in the Al-Sabra area, and on 6 September 2003 in a residential apartment in the center of Gaza City.

His main accomplishments
In 1976, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin participated in establishing the Islamic Society in Gaza to spread Islamic culture in Palestinian society by all available means.

In 1978, Sheikh Yassin participated in the founding of the Islamic University, and in 1979 he participated in founding the Islamic Mojama Association in Gaza with Islamic, cultural, social, and sporting objectives.

In 1987, Sheikh Yassin participated in founding the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and formed security and military groups that were known as the "Palestinian Mujahideen" and soon turned into the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

After his release from prison in 1997, Sheikh Yassin has established the "Reform Committees" to settle the social disputes between people and promoting the spirit of love and social solidarity to maintain the strength of the home front in confronting the Zionist occupation.

In 2000, Sheikh Yassin participated in the establishment of Dar Al-Arqam Schools intending to graduate a unique Quranic generation.

His Martyrdom
In a treacherous assassination, the Israeli occupation has assassinated Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Yassin at dawn on Monday, March 22, 2004, along with seven others, including Moamen, son of Dr. Ibrahim al-Yazuri, one of Hamas founders.