Mohammed Dahlan

Dahlan was born to a refugee family from Hamama (a Palestinian town depopulated in 1948), the youngest of six children.

Mohammad Yusuf Dahlan (محمد دحلان) born on 29 September 1961 in Khan Yunis Refugee Camp, Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip also known by the kunya Abu Fadi (أبو فادي) is a Palestinian politician, the former leader of Fatah in Gaza.

Dahlan married Jaleela (born in Saudi Arabia on 1 January 1966).

Dahlan became politically active as a teenager and in 1981 helped to establish the Gaza branch of the Fatah Youth Movement Fatah Hawks in the Gaza Strip.

Between 1981 and 1986, he was arrested by Israel 11 times for his leading role in the movement.

During his time in prison, he learned to speak Hebrew fluently.

They have four children: Fadi (born Tunis, 5 October 1990); Firaz (born Tunis, 8 August 1992); Hadil (born Gaza, 19 October 1995); and Asil (born Gaza, 25 September 2003).

His forces were accused of torturing Hamas detainees throughout the 1990s, allegations Dahlan denies.

During this period Gaza was nicknamed "Dahlanistan" due to his power.

His reputation was damaged in the Karni scandal of 1997 when it was revealed that Dahlan was diverting 40% of the taxes levied at the Karni Crossing (an estimated one million Shekels a month) to his personal bank account.

In 2001 he upset Yasser Arafat by beginning to call for reform in the Palestinian National Authority and expressing dissatisfaction with a lack of coherent policy.

In 2002, he resigned his post as head of the Preventive Security in Gaza in the hope of becoming Interior Minister; this did not occur, and he was offered a post as security adviser but rejected it.

In April 2003, he was appointed the Palestinian Minister of State for Security by Mahmoud Abbas, despite the objection of Arafat.

By September he had been ousted when Abbas resigned as Prime Minister, and was replaced by Hakam Balawi.

He repeatedly tried to campaign on a reform and anti-corruption ticket and tried to profile himself as an outspoken critic of Arafat, although many observers dispute his personal integrity.

Nevertheless, Dahlan and his followers in internal Fatah elections won over most of the Fatah sections in Gaza.

In 2004, Dahlan was assumed to have been behind week-long unrest in Gaza following the appointment of Arafat's nephew Moussa Arafat as head of Gaza police forces.

This appointment was considered by some a deliberate step to weaken Dahlan's position before the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza strip and sparked massive protests.

On January 26, 2006, Dahlan was narrowly elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in the Palestinian legislative election of 2006 as a representative for Khan Yunis.

Dahlan took a tough stance against Hamas, calling their election victory a disaster and threatening to 'haunt them from now till the end of their term' and to 'rough up and humiliate' Fatah supporters tempted to join the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

On December 14, 2006 gunmen attempted to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as he crossed Gaza's border with Egypt, killing a bodyguard and wounding five others, and sparking further clashes between Hamas and Fatah supporters in Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas accused Dahlan of orchestrating the attack.

Dahlan rejected the accusations, saying, "the Hamas government is fully responsible for yesterday's events."

On January 7, 2007, Dahlan held the biggest-ever rally of Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip, where he denounced Hamas as 'a bunch of murderers and thieves' and vowed that 'we will do everything, I repeat, everything, to protect Fatah activists'.

In response Hamas labeled Dahlan a 'putschist' and accused him of bringing Palestinians to the brink of civil war.

Dahlan was a Fatah representative in negotiations which resulted in the Fatah–Hamas Mecca Agreement of February 8, 2007, in which both sides agreed to stop the military clashes in Gaza and form a government of national unity.

In March 2007, despite objections from Hamas, Dahlan was appointed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to lead the newly re-established Palestinian National Security Council, overseeing all security forces in the Palestinian territories.

Dahlan organised paramilitary units of several thousand fighters trained with American assistance in Arab countries, and lobbied Israel to allow Fatah forces in Gaza to receive large shipments of arms and ammunition to fight Hamas.

In July 2007, Dahlan resigned from his post as national security adviser.

The resignation was little more than a formality, since Mahmoud Abbas had issued a decree dissolving his national security council immediately after the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

In the April 2008 edition of Vanity Fair it was revealed that after the 2006 elections Dahlan had been central in a US plot to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power.

The Americans provided money and arms to Dahlan, trained his men and ordered him to carry out a military coup against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

However, the elected Hamas government forestalled the move and itself carried out an armed counter-coup.

Dahlan Also holds Montenegrin citizenship since 2012.

Dahlan lives in exile in Abu Dhabi, where he "works closely" with the ruling Al Nahyan family.

He is also aligned with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Dahlan became involved in negotiating the Oslo Peace Agreement.

Dahlan was chosen to head the Preventive Security Force in Gaza after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

He built up a force of 20,000 men, making him one of the most powerful Palestinian leaders, dealing regularly with the CIA and Israeli intelligence officials.

All six gained Serbian citizenship together on 6 December 2013.